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Low-temperature fractional distillation for facile enrichment of intact aromatic components from galbanum essential oil

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Abstract

Galbanum essential oil (EO) and its components have a wide industrial use based on constituents. In this regard, developing a feasible method for obtaining fractions containing different compositions with specific properties can be more beneficial than using the raw EO. Here, galbanum EO was extracted using hydrodistillation method which yielded 21.52%, containing α-pinene (3.26%), β-pinene (72.79%), β-myrcene (2.37%), α-phellandrene (0.87%), copaene (0.92%), and azulene (0.85%) detected using GC-MS and GC-FID. The influence of three operational parameters including distillation periods, reflux ratio, and reboiler heat on the purity of the resultant fractions was explored. Firstly, time-dependent fractional distillation of the extracted EO was conducted and fractions with different contents of each component were collected. The maximum mass fractions of aforementioned components were 9.18%, 89.12%, 3.14%, 1.18%, 1.45%, and 2.73% (wt.%), respectively. Secondly, utilization of the reflux ratio (5:1) had no substantial effect on the purity of the components whereas it resulted in additional time and energy consumption. Finally, decreasing the heat of the reboiler to 75% of its baseline value and subsequently enhancing the contact time of the phases along the column significantly boosted the purity of α-pinene and β-pinene, achieving 24.52% (wt.%) and 92.38% (wt.%), respectively. There was no evidence of thermal degradation in any of the experiments, notwithstanding considerable thermal sensitivity of the EO. These findings indicate that fractional distillation can be an effective approach in achieving fractions that are richer in desired components in galbanum EO.

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Data Availability

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

No funding was received to assist with conducting this study or for the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Fatemeh Nasiri & Mohammad Reza Mehrnia

  2. Department of Mining and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

    Fatemeh Pourasgharian Roudsari

Authors
  1. Fatemeh Nasiri
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  2. Fatemeh Pourasgharian Roudsari
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  3. Mohammad Reza Mehrnia
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by FN, FPR, and MRM. The first draft of the manuscript was written by FN, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Mohammad Reza Mehrnia.

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Highlights

• Galbanum essential oil was extracted using hydrodistillation with yield of 21.52%.

• Desired compound-rich fractions were achieved through time-dependent fractionation.

• Applying reflux ratio (5:1) only results in consuming more time and energy.

• Reducing reboiler heat leads to achieving fractions richer in volatile components.

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Nasiri, F., Roudsari, F.P. & Mehrnia, M.R. Low-temperature fractional distillation for facile enrichment of intact aromatic components from galbanum essential oil. Biomass Conv. Bioref. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-023-05089-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-023-05089-6

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