Extraction of Essential Oil D-Limonene from Sweet Orange Peels by Simple Distillation

Abstract

Essential oils are highly concentrated substances, which are extracted from fruit peels, flowers, leaves, stems, roots and seeds. These oils are often used for their flavor and their therapeutic or odiferous properties, in a wide selection products such as foods, medicines and cosmetics. Although there are a wide variety of methods available to extract essential oils, it is a time consuming process in which the quality of the final product varies depending on the preferred process. In this study oils are extracted from orange peels by simple distillation which is both effective and cost efficient.