Pectinase enhanced solvent extraction of essential oil from citronella leaves (Cymbopogon winterianus Jowitt)

Date

4-2000

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Chemistry

College

College of Arts and Sciences (CAS)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Teresita M. Espino

Abstract

Essential oil from freshly harvested citronella leaves (Cymbopogon winterrianus)was extracted using the pectinase.  Petroleum either as extracting solvent was used in the recovery of the essential oil the average pectinase trannseliminase activity in this was 24.64 units per gram of ammonium sulfate precipitated pectinase.

Several parameters for essential oil yield were optimized such as enzyme concentration, incubation time, incubation temperature and sample buffer dilution ratio.  The optimized conditions obtained were as follows: enzyme concentration = 0.5%. incubation time = 12 hours, incubation temperature = room temperature (-300C) and sample : buffer dilution ratio = 1.2 (w.v).

Using the optimized condition, an essential oil yield of 1.92% or (1.92 grams essential oil per 100 grams fresh sample) was obtained for the enzyme treated sample while 0.72% oil yield for the control (without enzyme).  This represented a 267% increase in essential oil yield due to pectic enzyme treatment.

The physico-chemical properties of the enzyme treated citronella oil (c.o.) were as follows: specific gravity = 0.6875, refractive index = 1.3672, acid and value (mg/g) = 0.62 and solubility in 80% ethanol = 1ml c.o., 2 ml ethanol. Based on the physico-chemical analyses, the extracted essential oil from the enzyme-treated sample had significant improvement in the recovery of oil over the control (without enzyme)and the traditional steam distillation process.

Language

English

Location

UPLB Main Library Special Collections Section (USCS)

Call Number

Thesis

Document Type

Thesis

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