Abstract

The extraction of lemongrass essential oil (LGEO) using large quantities of solvents makes this extraction a hazardous and environmentally unfriendly procedure. Our aim was to find a suitable method for the improvement of its extraction and its quality. Solvent-Free Microwave Extraction (SFME) is a combination of dry distillation and microwave heating. SFME of LGEO was compared with conventional extraction hydrodistillation (HD). SFME is quicker than conventional HD. An extraction time of 15 min with SFME provided a yield of 0.6% comparable with that obtained after 120 min using HD. The composition of these oils revealed that the main components obtained with HD and SFME were both geranial (59.93% vs 44.59%, respectively). The quality of lemongrass is determined by its citral content, and a higher amount of citral was present in SFME oil (74%) in comparison with HD oil (60%). SFME is a green and a promising technology for the extraction of essential oils.

摘要

使用大量溶剂提取柠檬草精油 (LGEO) 使得这种提取过程变得危险且不利于环境。我们的目标是找到一种合适的方法来改善其提取和质量。无溶剂微波萃取 (SFME) 是干馏和微波加热的组合。将 LGEO 的 SFME 与传统的萃取加氢蒸馏 (HD) 进行了比较。SFME 比传统的 HD 更快。使用 SFME 15 分钟的提取时间提供了 0.6% 的产量，与使用 HD 120 分钟后获得的产量相当。这些油的组成表明，用 HD 和 SFME 获得的主要成分都是香叶油（分别为 59.93% 和 44.59%）。柠檬草的质量取决于它的柠檬醛含量，与 HD 油 (60%) 相比，SFME 油 (74%) 中的柠檬醛含量更高。SFME是一种绿色且有前景的精油提取技术。