Quaternary Ammonium Compounds Chemical Control of Bacteria in Sugar Cane Juice by Using Quaternary Ammonium Compounds

Abstract

In the 1982 - 1983 season, it was found that the sugar factories used 4 kinds of chemicals to control microorganism in sugarcane juice. They have the trade names of Maquat-1416, Hexemine X-100, CMA and Lutensit-KIC. All these chemicals belong to the group of quaternary ammonium compound (QAC) and have been approximately used at the concentration of 5 ppm. The effect of 3 quaternary ammonium compounds, Maquat-1416, CMA and Hexemine X-100 were tested. All these compounds were inhibitory at minimum concentration of 10 ppm to the following bacteria : Leuconostoc mesenteroides, Streptococcus sp., Lacto bacillus cello biosus, Bacillus sub tilis, Lactobacillus Fermentum, Erwinia herbicola and Proteus sp. Pseudomonas sp. and Klebsiella sp. were resistant to these chemicals. A study on the bactericidal property of these compounds at concentration of 10 ppm for 20 minutes was also undertaken. It was found that CMA could only inhibit the bacteria but not kill them, while Maquat-1416 could kill many bacterial species. Hexemine X-100 could inhibit most of the test bacteria and could kill just a few. The study indicated that the increase in the concentration of QAC to 10 ppm could control the bacteria in sugarcane juice and could reduce the rate of detrimental sucrose effectively.