Identification and Absolute Quantification of the Major Water-Soluble Aroma Components Isolated from the Hydrosols of Some Aromatic Plants

Hydrosols are aromatic waters that are produced during the distillation of aromatic plants. In this study the identity and the absolute quantity (mg/liter), of the major water-soluble aromatic components from the hydrosols of seven aromatic plants were investigated. These plants include sweet basil, peppermint, spearmint, sour orange petitgrain, lemongrass, lemon eucalyptus, and clove. Eugenol from clove hydrosol was found to be the most highly soluble component (854 mg/l hydrosol), followed by d-carvone from spearmint hydrosol (242 mg/l) and linalool from both sweet basil (171 mg/l) and petitgrain (128 mg/l) hydrosols. The investigation also revealed that, the solubility of certain aromatic component from different hydrosols is not the same, and probably depends on the chemical composition of its parent essential oil.