Co-detection of eugenol and butylated hydroxyltoluene by green and selective hydrodistillation of Heliotropium europaeum L. using ionic liquids as additives

Abstract

This study is the beginning of the research that focuses on uncon-ventional ionic liquids (ILs) hydrodistillation (HD) extraction of the essential oil of Heliotropium europaeum L. using ILs as additives. Two ILs based on 1- butyl-3-methylimidazolium were used by switching the anions (Cl- and PF6-). The effect of mass percent of the added ILs on its yield and composition was evaluated. Compared to the conventional HD, ILs-HD gives a higher yield of essential oils (0.10?0.36 %). Particularly, with [C4mim][PF6], the observation of morphological changes using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) con-firmed the effectiveness of the ionic liquid in this distillation process. The GC? ?MS analysis of essential oils (EOs) revealed the presence of sixty-six com-pounds in HD, ILs-HD methods. Gas chromatography?mass spectrometry ana-lysis of the EOs revealed the predominance of eugenol (1.70?72.35 %), but-ylated hydroxytoluene (8.95?65.39 %) and phytol (18.20 %). The new distil-lation methods of H. europaeum with ILs identifies more compounds (50 com-pounds in ILs-HD [C4mim][PF6]; 22 compounds in ILs-HD ([C4mim][Cl]) than conventional hydrodistillation (25 compounds in HD). Therefore, the ILs- -based hydrodistillation approach is superior in improving the production of EOs. It is important to emphasize that the data presented in this study are not yet available for any of this Algerian Heliotropium species of genus and present the great potential of this medicinal plant as a source of novel bioactive extracts with possible therapeutic uses.