Citric Acid / Extract as an

Alternative Stain Removal

Chapter I

Bleaches used worldwide in household to remove or decolorize

stains which whiten or lighten the color of clothes. Chemically,

bleaches will breaks the stain molecules into smaller molecule that

easily be removed. D.Noemia Souza (2008) stated that “bleaches

are chemical that capable to whitening the fabrics and removing

stains by destroying colouring matter”. There are two types of

reaction that involve in bleaching. Commonly bleaching process

involves in oxidation processes such as hydrogen peroxide and some

involve the reduction processes such as sodium chlorite. However in

bleaching processes, the oxidation and reduction also can occur

simultaneously. “Bleaching process for stains most effective when

both an oxidative and a reductive bleaching steps worked together

 and this referred as “full” bleaching” (J.M. Cardamone & W.N.

Marker, 1995) There are various types of bleaches, and each type of

bleach is specifically used for certain type of fabrics. The fabrics are

very specific and if used with wrong bleach, the fabric will wear out.

Concentration, pH, time and temperature are the various conditions which are

affect the action of bleach on fabrics

Rationale of the Study

Nowadays, most of people prefer to use biodegradable product

or “green” product. Especially in current downturn economy,
many people change to less expensive products. Using citrus
fruits as an alternative ways to remove stain is the good choice.
The question that arises here is what the significance of knowing
which of the citrus fruits is best used in removing stains?

Hypothesis
The research question of the study is “How does the type
of citrus fruits used affect the rate of reaction of stain
removable?” The rate of reaction of stain removable is the
 highest at the most acidic solution. So the hypothesis is
the most acidic fruit in this case is lime or lemon as both
contains high concentration of citric acid.

Significance of the Study

Sodium hypochlorite (chlorine bleach) and hydrogen
peroxide (oxygen bleach) are extremely popular in the
market to whiten the fabrics and in stain removable.
However, there are some disadvantages using oxygen and
chlorine bleaches. Most of them are hazardous if ingested
or inhaled and should be used with care. Lindsay Evans
(2009) also explained the chlorine can cause negative
health effects. Besides, they are costly and give a bad
impact to our environment especially rivers and lakes
ecosystem. Chlorine that flowing into rivers or lakes will
combine with other chemical to form a stable compound
where it will remain unchanged in groundwater for many
years (Wisconsin, 2010). On the other hand, citric acid best
uses as natural bleaches because it does less harm to
ecology of rivers and lake.
 Scope and Delimitation

All of the experiment will conduct in the Mara College

Seremban’s laboratory. Most of the material such as
citrus fruits; lemon, lime, navel oranges and pineapple
and table salt are obtained from Carrefour Cheras in
Cheras, Selangor, Malaysia. So, all of the fruits are not
in the same level of freshness due to different condition
during storage that may affect the freshness of the
fruits. Besides that, the fruits might not come from
same tree and this will affect the concentration of acid
in the fruits.

Independent Variable

There are two independent variables in this experiment

as the experiment is divided into several parts. The first
independent variable is the different types of citrus fruit
juices; lemon, navel orange, lime and pineapple. While
the second independent variable is the different type of
stains where synthetic stain (syrup) and vegetable stain
(tomatoes) are used throughout the experiment.
 Dependent Variable

Rate of reaction to remove the stain from fabric will be

the dependent variable. The time taken will be record
by stopwatch for the stain to decolorize. Then by using
the graph the gradient is determine which represent
the rate of reaction.

Fixed Variable

The fixed variables are type of cloth (cotton), volume

of juice (5oml), temperature (100Ëšc) and volume
(100ml) of water bath.
All of this material will be use in same quantity
throughout of the experiment.
 Conceptual
Frame Work

Input Process

Nature of Citric Testing the fruit

Extract extract from Lemon
and Lime used to
Nature in making substitute to the other
natural detergent. chemicals and if it’s a
good stain remover.
Effective method of
extracting the citric
extract.

Output

A stain remover that

uses Citric Acid extract
as a substitute for the
chemicals used in
making detergents.
 Chapter II

Review of Related Literature

Citric acid is an organic acid with numerous

industrial applications. The original commercial
lsource of this this TCA acid was citrus fruits such
as lime and lemons. However at present the
supplies provided entirely by microbial sources.
The annual worldwide production of about 70000
tons (Roehr et al, 1996) has seen it become a
major industrial compound produced by,micro
rganisms, because if the value of third acid, a
great no. of reviews describing its production
have been published. These articles are sources of
knowledge on all aspects including types of
production process, producing organism and
regulation of citric acid production.
 Citric Acid Production by Aspergillus Niger

An intermediate in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA)

cycle, citric acid is an important commercial product
with global production reaching 736,000 tons/yr.
Furthermore, it is produced almost through the
submerged fermentation of the white rot fungus (Jian
long 2000; Vanden berghe et al., 2000). Citric acid is
widely used in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical
and cosmetic industries and it has other applications
including textiles, electroplating and bioremediation
(Tran et al., 1998; Wang, 1998; A tes et al., 2002).
Because of its numerous applications, the volume of
citric acid production by fermentation is continually on
the increase (Jian long and Ping, 1998). The most
popular white rot fungus for large-scale production of
citric acid is A. Niger due to its high citric
productivity at low pH without the secretion of toxic
by products. Besides citric acid, some strains of A,
Niger also accumulate other organic acids as well such
asoxalic, malic, tartaric, fumaric and pyruvic acids under
specific fermentation conditions (Sassi et al.,
1991).Regarding the process of citric acid
accumulation in A. Niger, two main metabolic
pathways have involved a major role: (1) the catabolic
pathway of hexoses to pyruvate and Acetyl-Coenzyme
A (Acetyl-CoA) by glycolysis and(2) citric acid
formation by TCA cycle (Alvares -Vasquez et al.,
2000). A s glucose is the starting carbohydrate in
glycolysis for citric acid production, glucose plays an
important role in citric acid production.

Regarding the process of citric acid accumulation

in A. Niger, two main metabolic pathways have
involved a major role: (1) the catabolic pathway of
hexoses to pyruvate and Acetyl-Coenzyme A (Acetyl-
CoA) by glycolysis and(2) citric acid formation by
TCA cycle (Alvares-Vasquez et al., 2000). A s
glucose is the starting carbohydrate in glycolysis for
citric acid production, glucose plays an important role in
citric acid production.

According to Wasay in 1998, over 90% of glucose

can be converted into citric acid mainly and other
organic acids under optimal fermentation
conditions.
 Chapter III

Methodology

In this research, the goal of the researcher is

to find out the effect of citrus limon and
lime by comparing the two and using it as
bleaching agent on inked and chocolate
drink-stained cloth.

Materials:
* Lemon
* Lime
* Water
* Stain
* White Cloth ( Marker inked and Chocolate
drink )
* 4 bowls
 Procedure

2. Squeeze the
1. Gather
juices of both
all needed
cut-lemon and
materials.
lime.

4. Using the
container, pour
1 cup of water 3. Put the
and ¼ cup of necessary stain
each lemon and on the cloth.
lime, already
containing the
stained cloth.
 5. Let it stay for 12
hours overnight.

6. Let it dry and observe

what happened to the
stain on the cloth.