Study of vanilla essential oil extraction : comparison through heat and wave principles

• Main Author: Nur Farhana, Ghazali
• Format: Undergraduates Project Papers
• Language: English
• Published: 2006
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/59/1/Complete.pdf; http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/59/
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Pahang

To extract an essential oil the method used is extraction without using organic solvent. The conventional method used is hydro distillation (HD) that applies heat principle. However, a new green technique for essential oil extraction that is microwave which is applies wave principle was developed in recent years. Solvent-free microwave extraction (SFME) is a combination of microwave heating and dry distillation performed at atmospheric pressure without added any solvent or water. SFME with presence of carbonyl iron powder (CIP) was compared with HD for the extraction of essential oil from vanilla (Vanilla planifolia) with different type of raw material sizing. SFME extracted essential oil with higher value of percentage yield and concentration which allowed substantial savings of costs in terms of time, energy and plant material. SFME is an environmental friendly technique as it was rejected less carbon dioxide (CO2) compared to HD technique. The strength of aroma of extracted essential oil from both methods was compared by calculating the degree of concentration. The loss of the aroma depends on the degree of concentration. By using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system the presence on vanillin in the extracted oil was identified and has been compared in terms of presence of impurities quantity and concentration. Vanilla treated by SFME and HD were viewed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the results reveal that vanilla structure treated by SFME was being more ruptured compared to conventional HD technique.