Extraction of essential oil by Microwave-assisted extraction: A review

Chemical Engineering

Essential oil is concentrated hydrophobic liquid which containing volatile aromatic compounds extracted from flowers, leaves, stems, roots, seeds, barks, resins, or fruit rinds. Extraction of essential oils is one of the most time and effort consuming processes. In this work, the volatile compounds of different plant material were extracted by Microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) techniques. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry was used to identify and quantify the volatile compound composition. MAE has been recognized as a technique with several advantages over other extraction methods, such as reduction of costs, extraction time, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions. MAE technique is a green technique which is highlighted by increased extraction yield, decreased time and solvent consumption, moreover the reproducibility is better. For this purpose, various process parameters such as solid loading, water volume, microwave power and extraction time were studied in detail.

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