Abstract
This study mainly deals with the effect of hydrodistillation (HD) and water-steam distillation (WSD) methods on the color, yield, and chemical profile of the essential oil (EO) from Cryptomeria japonica fresh leaves from São Miguel Island (Azores Archipelago, Portugal). The yields of EO–HD (pale-yellowish) and EO–WSD (colorless) samples were 1.21% and 0.45% (v/w), respectively. The GC–FID, GC–MS, and 13C-NMR analyses of EO–HD vs. EO–WSD revealed (i) a high-content of monoterpenes (72.8% vs. 86.7%), mainly α-pinene (34.5% vs. 46.4%) and sabinene (20.2% vs. 11.6%), and oxygenated mono- and sesquiterpenes (20.2% vs. 9.6%); (ii) similar sesquiterpene (1.6% vs. 1.6%), β-myrcene (5.9% vs. 5.8%), and camphene (3.5% vs. 3.8%) contents; and (iii) significant differences in other classes/components: EO–HD is richer in oxygenated sesquiterpenes (17.1%, mainly elemol (10.4%) and α-eudesmol (3.4%)) and diterpenes (3%; mostly phyllocladene), while EO–WSD is richer in oxygenated monoterpenes (7.2%, mainly terpinen-4-ol (5.4%)), p-cymene (4.4%), and limonene (3.2%). Overall, the color, yield, and quantitative composition of the EO samples studied are strongly influenced by the distillation method. Nonetheless, this C. japonica leaf EO displayed a consistent α-pinene- and sabinene-rich composition. The same chemotype was found in a commercial Azorean C. japonica leaf EO sample, obtained by industrial steam distillation (SD), as well as in Corsica C. japonica leaf EO–HD. Furthermore, the bioactive composition of our EO samples revealed the potential to be used in green plant protection and in the medical, food, cosmetic, and household industries.
Highlights
Essential oils (EOs) are generally complex mixtures of volatile, lipophilic, and odiferous secondary metabolites synthesized and emitted by several plants to facilitate their growth and survival
Comparing the leaf EO yield (%, v/w), on a fresh weight (FW) basis, a significantly higher value was obtained by HD (1.21 ± 0.03%) than that produced by water-steam distillation (WSD) (0.45 ± 0.01%)
Based on the results obtained in this study, it was proven that the distillation method significantly affects the C. japonica leaf EO color and yield, with HD being the most efficient EO extraction method compared with the WSD
Summary
Essential oils (EOs) are generally complex mixtures of volatile, lipophilic, and odiferous secondary metabolites synthesized and emitted by several plants to facilitate their growth and survival They can be valuable sources of bioactive components with application, for example, in the fight against human and animal infectious diseases as well as in green plant protection. EOs are mainly composed of two types of components: terpenes (including mono-, sesqui-, and diterpenes and their oxygenated derivatives), and the aromatic and aliphatic components, derived from phenylpropane. They can be composed of only a few to up to more than 100 components in different concentrations. To investigate the viability of a specific EO application, knowledge about their total chemical composition is required [1,3,4]
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