EXTRACTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF FUNCTIONAL PROPERTIES OF CARRAGEENAN Kappaphycus alvarezii FROM COAST OF KUTAI TIMUR DISTRICT

Carrageenan is a gelling form of polysaccharide obtained from extraction process of red seaweeds ( Rhodophyceae ) including  Kappaphycus alvarezii . Carrageenan is widely used for pharmacy, cosmetics,  food,  gelling,  and  binding  agent  as  well  as  emulsifier  and  stabi-lizer. The quality of carrageenan is affected by several factors, one of them such as concen-tration of KOH. The objectives of this research were to define the best concentration of KOH for extraction and characterize the functional properties. Functional properties of carrageen-an in this research were sulphate content, acid insoluble ash, gell strength, fiber, and whiteness. The experimental design used for this research was completely ran-domized design with four treatments of KOH concentrations i.e. 1%, 3%, 5%, and 7%.  The study showed that the use of KOH concentarion of 7% resulted the best of carrageenan quality containing 24.36% sulphate, 1.96% acid insoluble ash, 17.80 g/cm2 gell strength, 8.94% fiber and 58.91% whiteness.Keywords: carrageenan, extraction, functional properties, Kalium Hydroxide, Kappaphycus alvarezii