Plants of Nepeta cataria var. citriodora Beck. and essential oils from them for food industry

Abstract

Nepeta cataria var. citriodora Beck. (catmints) is a source industrial production of citral and attractive raw material for food industry and cooking. Aerial part of Nepeta are characterized by high antimicrobial activity and fungicidal action against mold fungi, used in folk medicine, as ingredient in recipes for sausages, liqueurs and soft drinks, vegetable and fruit canned food, in the manufacture of vermouth. Ukrainian variety 'Melody' was created specifically for growing in the Forest-Steppe zone, and variety 'Peremozhets' - in the Steppe zone. Data on the yield aerial part and essential oil Nepeta was determined. The dry aerial part of plants N. cataria we used to create a dry spicy mixture for sweet dessert dishes. Quantitative content and qualitative composition of essential oil of plants by organs and phases of vegetation are presented in the article. In our research we used essential oils obtained by hydro distillation procedure for 2 h using Clevendger-type apparatus from the flowering parts of plants N. cataria 'Peremozhets' and 'Melody'. Investigate of components was carried out by high effective gas chromatography with HP 6890 chromatograph coupled with HP 5972 mass selective detector. The most abundant components of Nepeta essential oil was citral, geraniol, as well as nerol, citronellol, citronellal, carvacrol, camphor, eugenol. We proposed fractional distillation of essential oils to obtain a line of flavors with stable sensory and physicochemical indicators for food industry. The separation of essential oils into fractions was carried out on a pilot installation of fractional distillation DFD (Device of Fractional Distillation). Calculations of parameters controlled dispersal of essential oils (residual pressure, temperature regimes, number of theoretical plates, reflux number) were carried out. During fractionation of essential oil of N. cataria four fractions were obtained with a content of 96 ±0.5% to the total mass of samples. Sensory and physicochemical analysis of aromatic fractions announced them as promising flavours for food industry.