* Corresponding author. Tel : +62-21-7560929, Fax : +62-21- 7560549, Email: ysudiyani@yahoo.com International Conference On Chemical Sciences (ICCS-2007) Innovation In Chemical Sciences For Better Life Yogyakarta-Indonesia, 24-26 May, 2007 ANL/47-6 CHARACTERIZATION OF WASTE WATER FROM TOFU INDUSTRY Yanni Sudiyani * , Syarifah Alawiyah, Yulia Anita, and Indri Badria Adilina Research Center for Chemistry – Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) Puspiptek Serpong, Tangerang 15314 ABSTRACT Tofu is one of the more accepted soy products in the world, a very popular food among the Asian population and is gaining popularity among Indonesian as well, due to the associated health benefits and economically available in the market. During tofu processing, generates solid waste, which has been utilized as feedstuff, functional food etc, and liquid waste which has not been utilized yet and when dispose to the environment can cause bad odour and pollution to the surface and ground water. More over waste water of tofu (whey) from home industry still contains valuable materials such as isoflavones which are dominated by daidzein and genistein. Genistein has been shown affective in preventing of osteoporosis, and daidzein important in preventing of cancer, improving of hormone steroid metabolism, reducing cholesterol and also protect of liver cell from toxic. The objectives of this study were to isolation and characterization of whey chemical compound for further biotransformation. Waste water collected from tofu industry at Serpong,Tangerang, Indonesia. Characterization of whey chemical compound using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) resulted daidzein and genistein derivates. Keywords: Whey, pollution, isoflavones, daidzein, genistein, FTIR, HPLC INTRODUCTION Tofu is one of the more accepted soy products in the world, a very popular food among the Asian population and is gaining popularity among Indonesian as well, due to the associated health benefits and economically available in the market. During tofu processing, generates solid waste, which has been utilized as feedstuff, functional food etc, and liquid waste which has not been utilized yet and when dispose to the environment can cause bad odor and pollution to the surface and ground water. More over waste water of tofu (whey) from home industry still contains valuable materials such as isoflavones which are dominated by daidzein and genistein. Isoflavones are one of the six main subclasses of flavonoids and the only one which contains a rearranged C15 skeleton based on 3-phenylchroman. The interesting biological properties described for isoflavonoids include antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti- inflammatory, estrogenic, and cancer hemoprotectant activities. Genistein and daidzein have antioxidant properties, leading to the inhibition of lipid peroxidation in a liposomal system, and are quenchers of singlet oxygen [1]. Isoflavones are part of the diphenol compounds, called phytoestrogens, which are structurally and functionally similar to estradiol, the human estrogen but much less potent. Because of this similarity, isoflavones were suggested to have preventive effects for many kinds of hormone-dependent diseases [2]. In addition, isoflavones may have a role decreasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases [3], by reducing the level total cholesterol as well as low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol [4]. Isoflavones occur naturally in plants and mostly in soybeans. Twelve forms of isoflavones are known in soybeans and soy products, including 3 free forms, as an aglucons (namely, genistein, daidzein, and glycitein) and 3 conjugated forms to each aglucon, called glucosides (glycosides). The conjugated forms have an additional glucose moiety, which could be free of other groups (ß-glucosides: namely, genistin, daidzin, and glycitin) or could be bound to either an acetyl group (6”- O-acetylglucosides) or a malonyl group (6”-O- malonylglucosides) [5]. Figure 1. Structures of isoflavones aglicon.