Comparison of different isolation methods of essential oil from Citrus fruits: cold pressing, hydrodistillation and microwave 'dry' distillation

Traditional hydrodistillation (HD), cold pressing (CP) and innovative microwave 'dry' distillation or microwave-accelerated distillation (MAD) methods have been compared and evaluated for their effectiveness in the isolation of essential oil from fresh Citrus peels. The microwave method offers important advantages over traditional alternatives, viz. shorter extraction times (30 min vs. 3 h for hydrodistillation and 1 h for cold pressing); better yields (0.24% vs. 0.21% for HD and 0.05% for CP); environmental impact (energy cost is appreciably higher for performing HD and for mechanical motors (CP) than that required for rapid MAD extraction); cleaner features (as no residue generation and no water or solvent used); increases antimicrobial activities; and provides a more valuable essential oil (with high amounts of oxygenated compounds). It also offers the possibility for better reproduction of the natural aroma of the essential oil from Citrus fruit compared with CP, but more than the HD essential oil. Further, the microwave procedure yields essential oils that can be analysed or used directly without any clean-up, solvent exchange or centrifugation steps. Scanning electron microscopy provides more evidence of the cleanness of microwave extraction, in contrast to the huge perforations on the external surface of the Citrus fruit peel in the case of conventional hydrodistillation. Finally, a mechanism of microwave 'dry' distillation is proposed and discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.