OPTIMISATION OF CARMINE PRODUCTION USING DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS METHODOLOGY. COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE FRENCH AND THORPE METHODS.

DIEGO PASCUAL VALBUENA PRESENTED HIS BACHELOR THESIS ON EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN IN THE OPTIMIZATION OF PRODUCTION OF CARMINE FROM COCHINEAL FROM LANZAROTE

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Cultivation of cochineal (Dactylopius coccus), which is an insect harvested from cactus plants, is very important as a source of carminic acid colorant or carmine (E-120). The main cochineal producers are Peru and Mexico, and, in Europe, the Canary Islands, which is the only territory where it is produced, with a Protected Designation of Origin (DOP) “Canary Islands’ cochineal”. Although there has been a fall in its production, cochineal can be considered as a potential source of wealth for some villages of the Canary archipelago. As a result of the collaboration with Teno Osorio, from I.E.S. Teguise (Lanzarote), Diego Pascual Valbuena has presented his Bachelor thesis “Optimisation of carmine production using design of experiments methodology. Comparative study of the French and Thorpe methods” on 12th July 2023.

Cochineal carmine is a natural dye composed mainly of carminic acid. The commercial dye is usually formed by the combination of the carminic acid with a metal such as aluminium or calcium, in a process known as lacquering. There are different lacquering methods; in this work, French and Thorpe methods were optimized using the methodology of design of experiments. The optimization of experimental variables such as alum, potassium tartrate, and boiling time in the lacquering process was sought in order to improve the amount of carmine obtained and its colorimetric quality, measured by the percentage of carminic acid.