Enhancement of Quality of Nutmeg Oil Using Rotary Vaccumm Evaporator

One business opportunity in terms of increasing the economic value of nutmeg is the content of essential oils in nutmeg. The nutmeg oil producing area in Aceh province is centralized in South Aceh Region. Nutmeg oil has a distinctive aroma and high oil yield. The quality of nutmeg oil is determined by the content of myristicin which gives a distinctive aroma to nutmeg oil [1]. In terms of improving the quality of nutmeg oil, purification process are carried out with a rotary vacumm evaporator in order to isolate myristicin which is an active compound of nutmeg oil. The isolation process to purify nutmeg oil was carried out at an operating pressure of 300 mbar and temperature of 450 °C was increase myristicin content up to 53.41%. Test results of characteristics such as specific gravity, refractive index have meet the requirement of the Indonesian National Standard (SNI) 06-2388-2006.