Volatility of essential oils

Essential is also used as the adjective form of the noun essence The mixtures of substances that make up the fragrant material of plants are called essential oils because they contain the essence that is the odor of the plant The study of the composition of essential oils ranks as one of the oldest areas of organic chemical research Very often the principal volatile component of an essential oil belongs to a class of chemical sub stances called the terpenes... 

Exceptions to the simple definition of an essential oil are, for example, gadic oil, onion oil, mustard oil, or sweet birch oils, each of which requires enzymatic release of the volatile components before steam distillation. In addition, the physical process of expression, appHed mostly to citms fmits such as orange, lemon, and lime, yields oils that contain from 2—15% nonvolatile material. Some flowers or resinoids obtained by solvent extraction often contain only a small portion of volatile oil, but nevertheless are called essential oils. Several oils are dry-distiUed and also contain a limited amount of volatiles nonetheless they also are labeled essential oils, eg, labdanum oil and balsam oil Pern. The yield of essential oils from plants varies widely. Eor example, nutmegs yield 10—12 wt % of oil, whereas onions yield less than 0.1% after enzymatic development. 

B. D. Mookherjee and R. W. TrenMe, "Volatile Constituents of Tiacture of Tonquia Musk," paper presented at the FTIIth International Congress of Essential Oils, Oct. 12—17, 1980, Cannes, Grasse, France. 

Essential Oils. Volatile oils from plants are referred to as essential oils. The oils can be obtained through steam distillation, solvent extraction, or separation of the oils from pressed fmit. They consist of oxygenated compounds, terpenes, and sesquiterpenes. The primary flavor components of essential oils are oxygenated compounds. Terpenes contain some flavors but are often removed from the essential oil because they are easily oxidized (causiag off-flavors or odors) and are iasoluble. Essential oils are prepared from fmits, herbs, roots, and spices. 

Essential oils are obtained from fmits and flowers (61,62). Volatile esters of short- and medium-chain carboxyHc acids or aromatic carboxyHc acids with short- and medium-chain alcohols are primary constituents of essential oils, eg, ethyl acetate in wines, brandy, and in fmits such as pineapple ben2yl acetate in jasmine and gardenia methyl saHcylate in oils of wintergreen and sweet birch. Most of these naturally occurring esters in essential oils have pleasant odors, and either they or their synthetic counterparts are used in the confectionery, beverage, perfume, cosmetic, and soap industries (see Oils, essential). 

Many applications involving the study of the composition of essential oils are based on the use of the on-column interface and retention gap techniques because of the high volatility of the components to be analysed. 

Manzan, A.C. et al.. Extraction of essential oil and pigments from Curcuma longa [L] by steam distillation and extraction with volatile solvents, J. Agric. Food Chem., 51, 6802, 2003. 

Citrus peel oils are a special type of essential oil. They are isolated by pressing the peel to release the volatile substances stored in the pericarp in small oil glands. The resulting products are termed essential oils because they consist largely of highly volatile terpene hydrocarbons. However, they also contain small amounts of nonvolatile compounds, such as dyes, waxes, and furocoumarines. 

Volatile compounds are often involved in long distance attraction and are especially important as attractants and repellents (as defined by Kogan, ). One major class of volatile materials, essential oils, is comprised of complex mixtures of terpenes, phenylpropanoid derived compounds and a number of esters, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, acids, and hydrocarbons. The constituent compounds are mostly of low to medium molecular weight and generally not highly oxygenated. Some of the biological properties of these compounds have been reviewed (17,41,46,55,56). 

Owing to their liquid nature at room temperature, essential oils are called as such. They should not be confused with fixed oils or fatty oils, which are composed of a naturally occurring mixture of lipids which may not necessarily be volatile. Therefore, essential oils differ entirely both in chemical and in physical properties from fatty oils. Essential oil evaporates completely when dropped on filter paper however, fixed oil leaves a permanent stain which does not evaporate even when heated. 

Head-to-tail rearrangement of four isoprene units results in the formation of diterpenes (C20H32), as seen also in Fig. 4.2. Diterpenes are generally found in resins, e.g. pimaric acid and abietic acid. Some diterpenoids are also constituents of essential oils, e.g. phytol [3, 7-14, 37, 52, 53]. Like sesquiterpenes, diterpenes are heavier than monoterpenes therefore, they require more energy to go to the vapour phase. For this reason, longer distillation times are necessary for their recovery. The DNP lists 118 different structural types for diterpenoids [37]. Important diterpenes found in essential oils will be detailed. Some representatives of volatile diterpenes are as in Structure 4.32. 

Capillary gas chromatography (GC) using modified cyclodextrins as chiral stationary phases is the preferred method for the separation of volatile enantiomers. Fused-silica capillary columns coated with several alkyl or aryl a-cyclo-dextrin, -cyclodextrin and y-cyclodextrin derivatives are suitable to separate most of the volatile chiral compounds. Multidimensional GC (MDGC)-mass spectrometry (MS) allows the separation of essential oil components on an achiral normal phase column and through heart-cutting techniques, the separated components are led to a chiral column for enantiomeric separation. The mass detector ensures the correct identification of the separated components [73]. Preparative chiral GC is suitable for the isolation of enantiomers [5, 73]. 

By using the C02-extraction technology the two operations, production of essential oil and of the non-volatile constituents, can be achieved in one step. Moreover, the process works at low temperatures, of 40 to 60°C, which avoid the decomposition of heat-sensitive aroma compounds. 

The volatile components of essential oils, for the most part, are made up of relatively low molecular weight (< 300-350) organic molecules of... 

Volatile or essential oils are usually obtained from the appropriate plant material by steam distillation, though if certain components are unstable at these temperatures, other less harsh techniques such as expression or solvent extraction may be employed. These oils, which typically contain a complex mixture of low boiling components, are widely used in flavouring, perfumery, and aromatherapy. Only a small number of oils have useful therapeutic properties, e.g. clove and dill, though a wide range of oils is now exploited for aromatherapy. Most of those employed in medicines are simply added for flavouring purposes. Some of the materials are commercially important as sources of chemicals used industrially, e.g. turpentine. 

Table 7.5. Volatile constituents of essential oils from different parts of cinnamon.

Kaul, P.N., Bhattacharya, A.K., Rao, B.R.R., Syamasundar, K.V. and Ramesh, S. (2003) Volatile constituents of essential oils isolated from different parts of cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume). Journal of Science of Food and Agriculture 83(1), 53-55. 

Ahmadiani, A., Rustaiyan, A., Karimian, M. and Kamalinejad, M. (2004) Volatile constituents from the oil of Trigonella foenum graecum L. Journal of Essential Oil Research 1 6(4), 356-357. 

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