A novel technology for extraction of essential oil from Myrtus communis: ohmic-assisted hydrodistillation

In the extraction process of essential oils (EOs), one of the major problems of traditional methods is long extraction times. Ohmic-assisted hydrodistillation (OAHD) is a specific hydrodistillation (HD) technique utilizing ohmic heating to generate heat faster and in a different form from traditional methods. OAHD was applied as a novel technology for the isolation of EO from the aerial parts of Myrtus communis L. (myrtle) and the results were compared with those of the conventional HD. The results showed that OAHD method had an extraction time of 26.11 minutes while this value was more than 1 hour for HD for approximately the same amount of EO recovery (0.7% v/w). Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis did not indicate any noticeable changes in the constitutes of the EO obtained by OAHD in comparison with HD and the major compound of EOs was 1,8-cineol. The proposed method required considerably less energy per mL of EO extraction and the results of this study revealed the innovative OAHD as an environmentally friendly technology.