Indonesian Journal of Forestry Research Vol. 7, No. 2, October 2020, 155-164

ISSN: 2355-7079/E-ISSN: 2406-8195

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF GLUCOMANNAN AND
NANO ACTIVATED-CARBON AS HYPERCHOLESTEROLLOWERING AGENTS
Gunawan Pasaribu*, Totok K. Waluyo, Gustan Pari, and Novitri Hastuti
Forest Products Research and Development Center
Jl. Gunung Batu No 5. Bogor, Jawa Barat, Indonesia
Received: 25 April 2020, Revised: 29 October 2020, Accepted: 29 October 2020
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF GLUCOMANNAN AND NANO ACTIVATED-CARBON AS
HYPERCHOLESTEROL-LOWERING AGENTS. Porang (konjac) plants have long been used as a food
source and traditional medicine. Glucomannan derived from porang has been utilised for various uses such
as antidiabetic and antihypercholesterolemia agent. This paper studies the mixture of porang flour and nano
activated-carbon and its effect on the cholesterol activity of rats. The mixture of porang and activated carbon
were subjected to test for male Sprague Dawley rats to test the antihypercholesterolemia activity. The result
showed that concerted anticholesterol activity of porang and nano activated-carbon revealed the cholesterol
level decreases in rat's blood. However, the different treatments of unleached and leached porang either
leached porang and nano activated-carbon applied in the experiments showed that the levels of cholesterol
decrease were slightly different (16–18%). Low glucomannan content as the alleged anticholesterol agent
was regarded quite effective in lowering the cholesterol level in rat's blood and comparable with those of
simvastatin which achieved 18% reduction. Therefore, it indicates potential utilisation as a functional food
for a cholesterol-lowering agent. The involvement of activated carbon in the alleged anticholesterol agent
(leached porang flour) did little in enhancing the cholesterol level decrease in rat's blood. The glucomannan
in both leached porang flour and leached porang flour + nano activated-carbon shows potential utilisation
as an anticholesterol agent. Yet, raw (unleached) porang is prospectively potential as a functional food for
cholesterol-lowering.
Keywords: Porang, anticholesterol, nano activated-carbon, glucomannan
EFEKTIVITAS GLUKOMANAN DAN NANO KARBON AKTIF SEBAGAI AGEN PENURUN
KOLESTEROL. Tanaman porang (konjak) telah lama digunakan sebagai sumber makanan dan obat tradisional.
Glukomanan yang berasal dari tanaman tersebut telah digunakan untuk berbagai kegunaan sebagai antidiabetes dan juga
sebagai antihiperkolesterol. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menguji aktivitas kolesterol pada tikus melalui perlakuan
kombinasi tepung porang dan nano karbon aktif. Kombinasi porang dan nano karbon aktif diuji pada tikus jantan strain
Sprague Dawley untuk menguji aktivitas antihiperkolesterolemia. Hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa aktivitas antikolesterol
porang dan nano karbon aktif menunjukkan penurunan tingkat kolesterol dalam darah tikus. Namun, perlakuan yang
berbeda antara porang tanpa pencucian dan porang dengan pencucian dengan nano karbon aktif menunjukkan bahwa
penurunan kadar kolesterol sedikit berbeda (16–18%). Kandungan glukomanan yang rendah dianggap cukup efektif dalam
menurunkan kadar kolesterol dalam darah tikus, dibandingkan dengan kontrol positif (simvastatin); keduanya mencapai
penurunan 18%; sehingga menunjukkan potensi pemanfaatannya sebagai makanan fungsional untuk menurunkan kolesterol.
Pengaruh nano karbon aktif dalam meningkatkan aktivitas antihiperkolesterolemia (tepung porang yang dicuci) ternyata
tidak banyak membantu dalam meningkatkan penurunan kadar kolesterol dalam darah tikus. Glukomanan dalam tepung
porang yang dicuci dan tepung porang yang dicuci + nano karbon aktif menunjukkan potensi pemanfaatannya sebagai agen
antihiperkolesterol. Namun, porang yang tidak dicuci berpotensi sebagai makanan fungsional untuk menurunkan kolesterol.
Kata kunci: Porang, antihiperkolesterol, nano karbon aktif, glukomanan

*

Corresponding author: gun_pa1000@yahoo.com

©2020 IJFR All rights reserved. Open access under CC BY-NC-SA license. http://dx.doi.org/10.20886/ijfr.2020.7.2.155-164

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I. INTRODUCTION
Amorphophallus muelleri, locally called
porang or iles kuning, is one of potential
glucomannan source in Indonesia (Yanuriati,
Marseno, Rochmadi, & Harmayani, 2017).
They are prevalent as flour forms and could be
used for various utilization, such as for food,
industry, and health products. Porang plants
are widely planted by the community and
managed by Perum Perhutani across East Java,
such as Jember, Nganjuk, Padangan, Saradan,
Bojonegoro and Madiun. The total area of land
reaches 1605.3 ha (Indriyani et al., 2010). Purified
porang flour could be ingeniously converted
into specific products for the manufactured
(processed) items, such as specific type of food,
including noodles, tofu and low-calorie artificial
rice, a mixture for industrial raw materials, basic
ingredients for film industries, and refreshment
drink (Tester & Al-Ghazzewi, 2017). Chua et
al. (2010) mentioned that glucomannan could
afford potential health benefits, owing to its
efficacious healing performances, such as
anti-obesity activity, anti-hyperglycemic and
hypercholesterolemia activities, laxative effect,
prebiotic activity, and anti-inflammatory activity.
Nowadays, many people are very concerned
about a healthy lifestyle. Besides, consumers
are very interested in functional food associated
with human health. Not only can such food
serve as a source of energy and nutrition, but
it should also perform physiological functions
needed by the human body for maintaining
their health. One of the potential functional
foodstuffs is porang (konjac). This stuff
product exhibits a high dietary fiber and being
low in calorie (Directorate-General for Food
Crops, 2013).
Consuming glucomannan which is
prevalently contained in porang/konjac or
depolymerised glucomannan, is remarkably
good for maintaining human health. The
mannans could provide several health benefits
in the human body. The ability of mannans,
especially konjac glucomannans, to prevent
specific pathogens including Escherichia coli
from adhering to the gut or bladder mucosa,
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particularly in the human body, is highlighted
or put to thorough attention. Other benefits
associated with the local gut environment are
discussed together with more systemic effects
in and on other organs. The glucomannans
could be an option for therapeutic tools in
curing a wide range of physiological disorders
such as diverticulitis and Crohn's disease or
ulcerative colitis (Tester & Al-Ghazzewi, 2013).
Furthermore, a study by González-Torres et al.
(2016) revealed that cholesterolemia was lower
in glucomannan and glucomannan/spirulina
treatment in rats. Glucomannan has been
approved as generally regarded as safe (GRAS)
food additive and had been approved by related
agencies on food and health regulation in the
USA, Canada and European Commission
(Tester & Al-Ghazzewi, 2017).
On the other hand, nanotechnology has
been applied to improve the effectiveness of
drug delivery, movement, and efficacy in the
human body. One of the nano products which
have been used in the drug delivery system
is nanocarbon. Nanocarbon derived from
bamboo charcoal showed good performance
in delivering Eucommia ulmoides extract with
cumulative release rate was 70.67% and in vitro
anticancer study of this nano carbon delivery
system showed the inhibition rate against
HCT116 cancer cells was 23% (Zeng, Zhang,
& Huang, 2017). Carbon nanotubes have been
used for medicine such as for chemotherapy
drug delivery, for stem cell-related therapies,
and thermal destruction of tumours (Shao et
al., 2013). Furthermore, (Liu et al., 2010) said
that carbon nanotube-based drug delivery
had shown promises in 2 various in vitro and
in vivo experiments including the delivery of
small interfering RNA (siRNA), paclitaxel and
doxorubicin. Meanwhile, the carbon activation
using thermal or chemical method is known
to create well-developed microstructures and
porosity, as well as surface functionality ( Huang
et al., 2018).
The utilisation of activated carbon
nanoparticles exhibited efficient intracellular
delivery of molecules while maintaining high

The Effectiveness of Glucomannan and Nano Activated-Carbon ...............................(Gunawan Pasaribu et al.)

cells viability close to 100% (Sengupta, Kelly,
Dwivedi, Thadhani, & Prausnitz, 2014). The
prominent properties of nanocarbon, i.e. high
specific area and porosity, high adsorption
capacity and hierarchical porous structure, make
them a good candidate as a carrier material
(Huang et al., 2018). Among the carbonaceous
materials, biomass-based activated carbon
is attracting because of its unique internal
structure having regularly interconnected
mesopores, high surface area, low mass density,
exceptional chemical stability, low cost and
environmental friendly (Jain & Tripathi, 2015).
In this study, the synergy of porang flour,
which emerged into nano activated-carbon
derived from biomass was observed. The
use of nano-activated carbon and porang
flour which containing glucomannan as
an anticholesterol agent is predicted to be
able to enhance antihypercholesterolemia
activity as tested in rat body as well as the
implantation of glucomannan in the potential
active site. This study aims to evaluate the
concerted antihypercholesterolemia activity of
porang flour and nano activated-carbon. The
commercial antihypercholesterol (simvastatin)
was used in this study as a comparison.
II. MATERIAL AND METHOD
A. Materials
Porang (Amorphophallus muelleri) pieces as
originally already procured in chip shape were
indigenous from East Java. Activated carbon
was made from charcoal pine waste.
B. Methods
1. Preparation of Porang's Flour
Porang flour which was used in this study
was generated from the species Amorphophallus
muelleri. Porang flour was prepared based on our
previous research. Porang tubers were sliced to
make chip. The dried chip was ground to get
the unbleached flour. Then unbleached flour
was purified using ethanol 50% and NaHSO3
2% to get leached flour. (Pasaribu, Waluyo,
Hastuti, Pari, & Sahara, 2016). Glucomannan

content was measured based on Indonesia's
National Standard (SNI 7939, 2013).
2. Preparation of Activated Carbon
The nano activated carbon used in this
experiment was prepared through the
activation process from pine charcoal by a
thermal method. The charcoal was activated in
the retort at 800°C for 90 minutes (Pari, 1999).
The activation intended mainly to remove the
impurities (e.g. fat, residual high-boiling volatile
matters, and impurities materials other than
wood/lignocellulosic materials, such as dust,
tiny sand particles, and dirt), thereby clearing
its surface and enhancing its available pores
numerously. Afterwards, as-prepared activated
charcoal was ground mechanically; therefore,
the size reduced vigorously to very tiny
particles and denoted as nano activated-carbon.
The resultant nano activated-carbon was
characterised microscopically, and its properties
were evaluated by refers to the Indonesian
standard (SNI 06-7370, 1995).
3. Combination of Porang and Nano
Activated-Carbon
The nano-activated carbon and porang
flour were mixed in the ratio of 90% (w/w)
of porang flour and 10% of nano activatedcarbon. The composition selection was made
based on the results of previous studies which
showed good results.
4. Antihypercholesterolemia Activity Test
As many 42 healthy living male rats as of
Sprague Dawley strain, which weighed 200
to 250 g were selected randomly; and then
prepared for the in-vivo study for their exposure
to the antihypercholesterolemia activity test.
The appointed (selected) rats were divided
into six groups, each comprising seven
individual rats. The number of replication
can be determined with Federer's Formula.
For research with six treatment, the minimum
number of replications were four rats. Those
six groups were further assigned each for six
different allocations concerning the activity
test of antihypercholesterol agents (Table 2),

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which consisted of consecutively (1) normal
group (the group of test animals that were
not given treatment from the beginning to the
end of the study); (2) positive control group
(simvastatin); (3) negative control group (aqua
dest); (4) group treated with porang aquadest
before leaching-treatment (unleached porang
flour, supposedly with lower glucomannan
content), (5) group treated with porang flour
after leaching treatment (leached porang flour,
supposedly with higher glucomannan content);
and (6) group treated with the mixture of
leached porang flour (90%) + nano-activated
carbon (10%).
The appointed rats in each group were
allowed to acclimatise themselves for two weeks
before the antihypercholesterolemia activity test
started. During the acclimatisation, the animals
were each given daily a standard feed as much as
20 g and drinking water ad libitum. Afterwards,
those acclimatised rats also underwent the socalled induction phase of hypercholesterolemia,
which was performed with high-fat feeding
(7.5% egg yolks, 7.5% goat fat, 85% standard
diet). The induction phase lasted for four
weeks or proceeded until the rats revealed
their blood cholesterol levels more than 200
mg/dL. Before the induction-phase treatment
(immediately after the 2-week acclimatisation
duration), those appointed rats were checked
for their blood cholesterol levels using a strip
test of the so-called Easy touch® and CHODPAP cholesterol kit, Biolabo®. Before the
cholesterol-level checking, those rats should
undergo the fasting period (without eating and
drinking) for more or less (±) 16 hours. After
cholesterol checking, the induction process
could begin. Further, after the induction, those
inducted rat animals were ready for anti-hypercholesterolemia activity test that comprised
those six allocated treatments (Table 2).
That anticholesterol test was performed
on the inducted rats for five weeks, whereby
the rats in each group were treated (infected)
with any of the supposedly anticholesterol
agents (i.e. unleached porang flour; leached
porang flour exclusively; and the mixture of

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leach flour and nano activated-carbon) (Table
2); and the anticholesterol dosages for each
group (designated as F1, F2, and F3) were
similar (350 mg/kg BW). While undergoing
the anticholesterol test, concurrently all those
tested rats also underwent the oral feeding
treatment, whereby the rats in each group was
fed with high-fat diets, except for the normal
group (Table 2). One week after the start of
anticholesterol treatment, each of the treated
rats was checked for their cholesterol level
using Easy touch ®'s strip test. When the fiveweek duration for anticholesterol test treatment
ended, immediately, the blood of all treated rats
was taken to obtain the serum. The obtained
serum was used as a sample for measuring the
rat's total cholesterol level.
This research that used animal (rats) as
a model of a sort was assessed and finally
approved by the ethics committee of Bogor
Agricultural University under the registered
IPB No. 45-2017. Moreover, the experimental
procedures with rat objects were in strict
accordance with animal ethical committee
guidelines as stipulated for the care and use of
laboratory animals.
C. Analysis
The data was analysed using descriptive
qualitative method. The characteristic activated
carbon resulted from an average of three
replications. The percentage of cholesterol
decrease resulted from the average of reduction
at one week after treatment and final treatment.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Porang's Flour Characteristics
Characteristics of porang flour generally can
be evaluated by its moisture content, ash content,
protein content, fat content, and carbohydrate
levels. The important data for this research is
glucomannan content. Glucomannan content
in porang flour after the leaching treatment
was 83.96%; confirmed that leaching process
using ethanol 50% and NaHSO3 2% effectively
increased the glucomannan content compared
to the initial content prior leaching (32.65%).

The Effectiveness of Glucomannan and Nano Activated-Carbon ...............................(Gunawan Pasaribu et al.)

The glucomannan content of leached porang
flour was 83.96%. This value was much higher
than the glucomannan content of the previous
study conducted by the same leaching treatment
(Pasaribu et al., 2016). The glucomannan content
of porang flour also was higher than konjac
flour extracted from Amorphopallus guripingensis
(61.35%) and Amorphopallus rivirei (72.80%).
They used 50% of ethanol, followed by further
leaching using absolute ethanol at 40ºC and
centrifugation (Huang et al., 2016). Meanwhile,
other study revealed that glucomannan could
be simply extracted by centrifugation in 1500
g for 15 minutes at 35ºC and 75ºC generated
glucomannan contents of 32 g/100 g and 35
g/100 g, respectively (Tatirat & Charoenrein,
2011). However, a glucomannan content of this
study was lower but still comparable with the
result of another study which used Al2(SO4)3
and ethanol for purification (Yanuriati et al.,
2017). Besides, the temperature of extraction
also affected the quality of konjac flour.
Extraction of glucomannan using 40% ethanol
at 80ºC yielded glucomannan content about
90%, the ash content 0.01%, transparency
58%. Therefore, the temperature effect was
favourable to improve konjac glucomannan
purity (Xu et al., 2014).
B. Characteristic
of
Nano-Activated
Carbon Material
Characteristics of nano-activated carbon are
presented in Table 1. At general, all aspects of
nano-activated carbon's properties were within
the acceptance limit of Indonesian standard.

The Iod number of obtained nano-activated
carbon was much higher from the minimum
limit of standard.
Microscopic observation of nano-activated
carbon material was performed using scanning
electron microscopy (SEM) and the results, as
shown in Figure 1. SEM images revealed that
the mechanical grinding of activated carbon
yielded an irregular form of nanocarbon.
However, the mechanical disintegration applied
in this study has successfully degraded the size
of charcoal into nano-scale (Figure 1).
The characteristics of nano activated-carbon
(derived from pine charcoal) concerning its
moisture content, ash content, volatile matters,
and iod number were in acceptance limit of
those as stipulated by the Technical Active
Charcoal Standard or Indonesia's National
Standard (SNI 06-7370-1995) (Standar
Nasional Indonesia, 2013). Activated carbon
consists of functional groups bonded to fusedaromatic rings, which would be expected to
possess chemical properties similar to those in
the aromatic hydrocarbons. Surface functional
groups on the carbon matrix can be manipulated
and adjusted by thermal, hydro-thermal or
chemical treatments for particular functions
(Ao et al., 2018).
The high iod number of obtained nano
activated-carbon was attributed to the pores
structure change during the activation. As the
activation time increases, micropores develop
at the initial stage of activation. At the second
stage, the micropores and the mesopores
develop together, and at the third stage, the

Table 1. Characteristic of activated charcoal as the nano-activated carbon material

Item
Nano activated
pine charcoal **)
SNI 06-7370-1995

Moisture
content
(%)
13.11
Max.15

Ash content
(%)
4.90
Max.10

Characteristics*)
Fixed
Volatile
carbon
matter (%)
(%)
3.06
92.04
Max.25

Min.65

Degree of
crystalinity
(%)
49.51
-

Iod number
(mg/g)
843.35
Min.750

(for active carbon)
Remarks: (-) not specified; Max = maximum; Min = minimum; *) the result from an average of 3 replications; **) interchangeably
in this aspect could be regarded as nano activated carbon material

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ISSN: 2355-7079/E-ISSN: 2406-8195

Figure 1. SEM image of nano-activated carbon from pine charcoal (2500x magnification)

mesopores mainly develop with a decrease of
the micropores (Lee et al., 2019). The increasing
micropores surface area of the activated
carbon, the adsorption capacity also increases
(Ahmed et al., 2019). With rising temperatures,
the porous structures on the surface of the
carbon materials and the specific surface area
increase, but breakdown and disintegration
of the porous structure can happen if the
temperature rises too high (Wan & Hu, 2019).
Such degradation and destruction consequently
induced the increase in amorphous regions
of the activated charcoal, while concurrently
caused a decrease in its crystalline regions. In
this regard, the crystallinity degree in woods
as well as lignocellulose materials, either
carbonised, activated, or not, represents the
ratio between the crystalline region and the
overall region (crystalline + amorphous).
Figure 1 revealed the small fragments and
3D structure with the large specific surface
area were obtained after activation at 800ºC,
and it is in good accordance with the previous
study which conducted activation using KOH
followed by carbonisation at 850ºC for 2 h
(Awasthi et al., 2019). The high iod number
also associated with the adsorption sites of

160

activated carbon. The adsorptive properties of
such biomass-derived activated carbons have
been utilised as pollution control materials for
control of polluting gases (llingworth, Rand,
& Williams, 2019). Activated carbon concept
includes several different carbonaceous
materials with various structures, forms and size
of pores (Volperts et al., 2019). However, the
properties of the resulting activated carbon can
be influenced by types of activating reagents,
activation time, impregnation condition,
carbonisation temperature, inorganic impurities
and others (Yahya, Al-Qodah, & Ngah). Besides,
the chemical constituents of lignocellulosic
materials such as cellulose, hemicellulose and
lignin also could influence the properties of
activated carbon. Based on the other study,
lignin can be considered as being the major
contributor of all chars and activated carbons
properties (Cagnon et al., 2009).
C. Antihypercholesterolemia Activity Test
The anticholesterol performance was
represented by the total cholesterol level and its
decrease in rat's blood, as presented in Table 2.
Antihypercholesterolemia
activity
test
revealed that the use of porang flour, which

The Effectiveness of Glucomannan and Nano Activated-Carbon ...............................(Gunawan Pasaribu et al.)

containing glucomannan was sufficient to
decrease total cholesterol level in rat's blood
(Table 2). The decreases (in percentage) of
overall cholesterol level for the three groups of
treatments, which allegedly as anticholesterol
agents, were consecutively 18% (for unleached
porang flour/F1, containing low glucomannan),
16% (for leached porang flour / F2, containing
high glucomannan), and 17% (for leached
porang flour that contained high glucomannan,
mixed with nano activated-carbon/F3),
whereby each of those groups used the same
dosages of the alleged anticholesterol agents
(350 mg/kg BW).
In the normal group, there was an increase
in cholesterol levels. This is thought to be
caused by the inadequate 0.01% PTU solution
mixed in drinking water which causes the initial
condition of hypercholesterolemic rats to be
not maximal. The initial cholesterol of the
treatment is still below 100 mg/dl.

By analysing the results from Table 2, the
three groups of alleged anticholesterol agents
(F1, F2, F3) were seemed to have similar
efficacious effect in decreasing the cholesterol
level in rats' blood (16‒18%) (Table 2).
However, the use of porang flour containing
glucomannan performed more effective in
the total level of cholesterol than the negative
control (14%). Furthermore, the performance
of the alleged anticholesterol agent, represented
by F1 group, had a similar percentage of total
level cholesterol with the positive control group
(using simvastatin as anticholesterol agent) after
five weeks of observation. Both are exerting the
same cholesterol decreases by about 18% (Table
2). Simvastatin is the common cholesterol drug
used by the community and commercially
available.
From the resulting related quantitative
figures (Tables 2), it revealed that unleached
porang flour/F1 (with 32.65% glucomannan

Table 2. Total cholesterol level and total cholesterol level decrease in rats' blood due to the
antihypercholesterolemia activity test treatment
Antihypercholesterolemia activity test treatment
Groups allocated for the
treatment
Normal group
Positive control / simvastatin
(C+)
Negatif control (C-)
Unleached porang flour /
without leaching (proved with
low glucomannan content)1),
dose 350 mg/kgBW (F1)
Leached porang flour (proved
with high glucomannan
content)1), dose 350 mg/kgBW
(F2)
Leached porang flour (proved
with high glucomannan
content)1) (90%) + nano activecarbon (10%)2), dose 350 mg/
kgBW (F3)

Total cholesterol
level, one week after
the treatment
(mg/dl)
70.25±2.99

Total cholesterol level,
at final week
of treatment (5
weeks)(mg/dl)
85.25±9.07

94.25 ± 16.94

76.00 ± 11.17

18±12.45

76.75± 7.63

66.00±7.16

14±5.01

79.75±3.20

65.75±9.00

18±10.95

70.00±4.32

58.75±5.5

16±11.22

80.25±10.01

67.50±16.52

17±11.57

Cholesterol
decrease level (%)
(21.47±13.10)

Remarks: the antihypercholesterolemia activity test treatment lasted for five weeks; 1) please refer to Table 1; 2) interchangeably
regarded as nano activated pine charcoal; F1, F2, and F3 considered to be the tested anticholesterol agents

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content) afforded the cholesterol level decrease
(18%), which was not far different from the
leached porang flour with leaching/F2 (with
83.86% glucomannan) that decreased the
cholesterol level decrease about 16%. The
percentages of cholesterol decreased was not
far different either the leached porang flour
(mixed with active carbon)/F3 that decreased
the cholesterol level up to 17%. This results
suggested that raw porang flour (containing
relatively low glucomannan; without leaching)
was quite effective in lowering the total
cholesterol level in rats' blood.
The study also assesses the involvement
of activated carbon (with its remarkable
adsorption capacity) as an anticholesterol
agent by combining it with glucomannan. The
important physical properties of activated
carbon are drug-loaded and wettability. The
effectivity of activated carbon influences those
as a carrier (Miriyala, Ouyang, Perrie, Lowry,
& Kirby). In this study, the moisture content
of nano-activated carbon was 13%. This water
might affect the effectiveness of glucomannan
as a cholesterol-lowering agent (Malik, 2013).
The other important properties of activated
nanocarbon on drug release or delivery
system are associated with dissolution and
diffusion from the system simultaneously
(Mondal, Hoang, Manivasagan, Kim, & Oh,
2019). Furthermore, the size and the shape
of activated nanocarbon also might influence
the effectiveness of glucomannan delivery to
specific sites as an anticholesterol agent. Based
on the other reported study, the promising drug
delivery into diseased sites can be achieved
through spherical-shaped nanoparticles with a
sub-50 nm diameter (Yallappa, Abdul Manaf,
& Hegde, 2018). The morphology of pine
activated charcoal in this study was nano-sized,
although not uniform in size.
The related research performed by
(Yelaware Puttaswamy & Urooj, 2016) showed
the notable performance of mahogany extracts
in lowering the cholesterol level in rats' blood.
They asserted that aqueous mahogany extracts
(using water solvent) which was fed to the rats

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as much as consecutively 250 mg kg -1 BW and
500 mg kg-1 BW and performed cholesterol level
lowering by 38.80% and 41.04%, respectively.
These values were more significant than the
cholesterol level lowering value achieved by
the positive control (satin), which was 37.31%.
However, the cholesterol-lowering level of
this study was lower, which were ranged from
16–18%. Furthermore, the effectiveness of
glucomannan as an anticholesterol agent in
this study was comparable with the capacity
of Vitis vinera extracts which could reduce the
cholesterol level in 10–21% (Devi & Singh,
2017).
IV. CONCLUSION
The percentage of glucomannan and nano
activated-carbon in lowering cholesterol (17%)
level was not different even slightly lower than
the treatment of glucomannan only (18%).
The leaching pre-treatment on konjac flour did
not affect the effectiveness of glucomannan in
lowering cholesterol level. The presence of the
porous structure of activated carbon has been
supposed to be used as a potential substance/
drug carrier. In contrast, the physical properties
of activated carbon might be very influential to
its performance.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors in this occasion wish to express
sincere gratitude, convey high appreciation
and feel deeply indebted to the Forest Product
Research and Development Center, the
Ministry of Environment and Forestry of the
Republic of Indonesia, which have supported
this research and provided the related facilities
and other beneficial items.
AUTHORS’ CONTRIBUTIONS
GP (Gunawan Pasaribu) conceived the study,
and inspired his idea to the research entities,
especially the research’s main cores; GP, TK
(Totok K Waluyo), GPi (Gustan Pari), and NH
(Novitri Hastuti) designed and carried out the
experiments; GP, TK, GPi and NH wrote the

The Effectiveness of Glucomannan and Nano Activated-Carbon ...............................(Gunawan Pasaribu et al.)

manuscript. GP serves as the main author.
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