Comparison of Microwave-assisted Hydrodistillation with the Traditional Hydrodistillation Method in the Extraction of Essential Oils from Dwarfed Cinnamomum Camphora var. Linaolifera Fujita Leaves and Twigs

Abstract

Microwave-assisted Hydro Distillation (MaHD) and conventional Hydro Distillation (HD) are compared and evaluated in terms of extraction time, extraction yield, chemical composition, quality of the essential oil and operation consumption. Experiments results manifest that MaHD has no obvious advantage over traditional HD for the extraction of Dwarfed Cinnamomum Camphora var. Linaolifera Fujita (D-CCLF) twigs. Extraction of essential oils from D-CCLF leaves with MaHD is superior with regard to extraction time (37.5 min vs. 120 min), extraction yield (1.73 vs. 1.71%) and operation cost (0.21 k Wh/g of essential oil vs. 0.67 kWh/g of essential oil). The chemical composition and quality of the extracted essential oils by using the two methods are quite similar to each other, indicating that the utilization of microwave irradiation would not cause an adverse influence on them. Therefore, MaHD is a fast and energy-saving method for the essential oils extraction of D-CCLF leaves.© Maxwell Scientific Organization, 2013.