Abstract
Ocimum basilicum (sweet basil) is an important essential oil plant used for different purposes (from food flavoring to pharmaceutical applications) characterized by the presence of several chemotypes. Here we show a comparative analysis between hydrodistillation of essential oils (EO) and supercritical CO2 extraction (SFE) of an O. basilicum chemotype particularly rich in T-cadinol. SFE yielded a higher percentage of 1,8-cineole (10%; 4-fold), linalool (23.2%; 5.8-fold), eugenol (13.3%; 1.2-fold) and germacrene D (5.6%; 28-fold) with respect to EO. On the other hand, EO composition was characterized by higher percentages of T-cadinol (27.5%; 3-fold) and some other sesquiterpenes with respect to SFE. The presence of high percentages of T-cadinol in EO is of great importance owing to the biological activity of this compound in cancer therapy and as an antibiotic.
Acknowledgements
We are very grateful to Waters and Dr Durieux for the kind use of the SFE 2000F unit system.