Isolation of Indonesian Cananga Oil by Instantaneous Controlled Pressure Drop: Influence of Processing Parameters on Compound Yields

Abstract

Dry cananga (Cananga odorata Hook. fil. et Thomson, forma macrophylla) flowers were steamed for a short time after which an abrupt pressure drop into a vacuum (about 5 kPa) was applied (DIC process). This pressure drop provoked auto-vaporization of the volatile compounds, puffing of flowers, breaking of cell walls, and cooling. The yields of major volatile compounds of the cananga oil obtained from the condensate were studied as functions of heating time (0.5 to 20 min) and cycle number (1 to 8) at different steam pressures (0.2 to 0.6 MPa). The results of DIC isolation and steam distillation (SD) were compared. A satisfactory yield of oil without thermal degradation was obtained using several DIC cycles with a high steam pressure (0.6 MPa) and short heating time (<1 min). The quantity of the oil obtained by SD in 12 h was isolated by DIC in 4 min. The quality of DIC oil was better because it contained more light and heavy oxygenated compounds (LOC and HOC) than the SD oil. The DIC isolation kinetics leads to the conclusion that sesquiterpenes and LOC are located in the exogenous site and a majority of HOC in the endogenous site.