Volatile composition of Lavandula angustifolia produced by different extraction techniques^*

* IHBT Communication Number: 0937/0950.

Abstract

The present investigation was conducted to study the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of volatile fractions from lavender flowers (Lavandula angustifolia) produced by different extraction techniques, which revealed that water distillation (WD) produced highest product yields (1.2%) followed by water-steam distillation (WSD) (1.12%), solvent extraction (SE) (0.8%) and supercritical CO₂ extraction (SCE) (0.5%). Linalyl acetate, the most important and major ester that determines the quality of lavender aroma, was recorded to be in higher amount in the volatile fraction produced by SCE (51.8%) followed by SE and WSD (31.4%, in each) and WD (26.8%). On contrary, linalool was found highest in the volatile fraction produced by WD (30.9%) followed by SCE (23%), WSD (20.5%) and SE (17.3%). Coumarin and 7-methoxycoumarin, the undesirable constituents in the lavender aroma, were present in substantial amounts in SE (20.5% and 11.2%, respectively) but were absent in hydrodistilled oils. Studies on sequential evolution of chemical constituents during WSD revealed that the distillation process should be continued up to 2 hours to obtain optimum oil yields with better quality. The foregoing studies disclosed that the SCE produced better-quality extracts compared to other conventional techniques that may find potential applications in food and pharmaceutical products.

Keywords:

• Lavandula angustifolia Mill
• lavender oil
• essential oil
• hydrodistillation
• solvent extraction
• supercritical CO₂ extraction
• linalool
• linalyl acetate

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Director, CSIR-IHBT, Palampur for continuous encouragement and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India for providing necessary facilities during the course of investigation. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the funding by Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, New Delhi. Thanks are also due to Ms. Vijaylatha Pathania for providing gas chromatography profiles and Mr. Gian Chand for their technical assistance.

Notes

* IHBT Communication Number: 0937/0950.