mycotheologist
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Pharmacy grade activated charcoal has fructoligosaccharides in it
I looked at the back of the box of some activated charcoal capsules I got in the pharmacy and it says each capsule contains 148mg activated charcoal
and 182mg fructoligosacchirides (thats the spelling they used). I'm wondering how I can separate this stuff from the charcoal now. Heres the wiki page
on this class of compound:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fructooligosaccharide
They are added to activated charcoal for their prebiotic (they make the GI tract more inhabitable for bacteria) so they insoluble in water. What could
one do to remove fructoligosaccharides from charcoal? I'm thinking of doing an acid catalysed hydrolysis to break the molecules down into fructose
monomers which could be then removed with a water wash. Anyone here have experience with oligosaccharides?
[Edited on 26-4-2012 by mycotheologist]
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Amy Winehouse
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Other than interesting experiences trying to pronounce them, i've seen references of the purification of fructooligosaccharides using activated
charcoal. At some point they had to have separated them. Just google them with activated charcoal. Stuff like this http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20478421
Also, I know this doesn't answer your question, but if you find yourself in over your head i've had good experiences with this supplier: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Activated-Charcoal-Powder-16-oz-Prem...
"I'm too drunk to taste this chicken"
-Colonel Sanders
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Pyridinium
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Pure fructans hydrolyze quite readily. Your suggested method should work at simmering temperatures. Perhaps let it go for half an hour to complete
it.
Or there's always roasting, basically making it into charcoal all over again... 
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smaerd
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Recovery of an analyte from activated carbon via water or acid will not usually give a complete regeneration of the activated carbon's surface. I'm
not 100% certain on the compounds at hand or their affinity for the surface chemistry. You may be able to stir in water for say 4 hours to allow
equilibrium to be reached, empty, and repeat several more times. Convective motion is pretty critical for desorption. Adsorption of certain molecules
and regeneration in acid or base alters the surface chemistry, in some case's quite drastically.
If the target is to get activated carbon alone high temperatures are your friend.
You might find that unadulterated activated carbon made usually from pyrolysis of coconut husks is found in your nearby pet-store or 'super-store' in
the pet department. It's used for water purification and should be rinsed with distilled water several times before use to remove alkali ions(from
ash) 'complexing' with it's surface. Though lab-grade will tend out perform aquarium-grade when it comes to adsorption.
Again I'm not certain on the substrate in question or the general trends/moeities in that family of compounds. You may be able to elute some of them
out with acetone or methanol. I'd recommend reading up on Solid Phase Extraction(S.P.E.) if you haven't already. A.C. is probably the oldest solid
phase that has been used and due to it's tendency to not allow for full recovery of the adsorbed compounds, in general it is not preferred. This may
work against you in this instance.
[Edited on 27-4-2012 by smaerd]
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Pyridinium
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Quote: Originally posted by smaerd  | Recovery of an analyte from activated carbon via water or acid will not usually give a complete regeneration of the activated carbon's surface.
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Good point. With the incredible surface area of the stuff it's a wonder anything can be gotten back out of it once it goes in there. However I do
know that the manufacture of activated carbon [at least sometimes] involves steam to drive out the hydrocarbons that remain from pyrolysis. I wonder
how much residue remains of these.
@mycotheologist: If you have enough patience and you really need clean carbon, after the initial hydrolysis you can probably just keep repeating hot
soaks on the carbon and eventually (probably) pull enough out of it to make it worthwhile.
That's two votes for roasting.
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