Extraction and Fractionation of Essential Oils with Carbon Dioxide

GAÑAN, NICOLÁS; MABE, GUILLERMO,; MARTINI, RAQUEL; BRIGNOLE, ESTEBAN

Natal

Conferencia; II Iberoamerican Conference on Supercritical Fluids, PROSCIBA; 2010

In this work the fractionation of essential oils from Salvia officinalis and Tagetes minuta with supercritical carbon dioxide was studied. The essential oils were obtained by conventional hydrodistillation, and the fractionation was carried out in a semicontinuous equipment, at 40ºC and 80 bar. Successive extracts were collected from the vapour phase and analyzed by gas chromatography. The solubility of the oils in supercritical carbon dioxide and its evolution was determined. The evolution of the composition of the extract during the process is also presented, considering three main fractions (monoterpenes, oxygenated terpenes and heavy compounds).