Water Distillation Extraction of Essential Oil from Sideritis Raeseri Herb

Abstract

Water distillation extraction is a well known and popular method for obtaining essential oils from medicinal and aromatic herbs. Additionally, it represents an environmentally friendly process. In the current work, Sideritis raeseri, also known as mountain tea herb, is used to attain essential oils by means of Clevenger apparatus exploiting water as extracting solvent. Essential oils are recognized for their applications in folk medicine. The Sideritis herbs are widely distributed in Mediterranean regions and the Balkans (Albania, Greece and Bulgaria). The primary goal of the present work is to utilize an eco-friendly process, i.e., hydro-distillation to obtain essential oils from Sideritis raesieri. Secondly, to identify the main chemical components in the essential oils of Sideritis herbs by utilizing spectral characterization by means of FTIR spectroscopy. Several samples were considered for the water distillation extraction of Sideritis herbs from different localities of southern Albania, i.e., Zagori (Gjirokastra), Dry Mountain (Korҫa) and Tomorr Mountain (Korҫa). FTIR analyses indicated presence of alpha- and beta-pinene, and bicyclogermacrene as main chemical constituents in the essential oil samples. FTIR spectra featured signals in the range 1437–1374 cm−1 and 1637 cm−1 attributed to bicyclogermacrene, and alpha- and beta-pinene, respectively, in good agreement with reported FTIR relevant studies.