Experimental and Kinetic Modeling Studies on Extraction of Essential Oil from Vietnamese Calamondin (Citrus microcarpa) by Hydro-Distillation Process

Current research refers to the modeling of data from the extraction of essential oils from plant materials via the hydro-distillation method, which is applicable from the laboratory scale to the production scale. Experimental data from the process were obtained by studying the kinetics of the distillation of calamondin peel essential oil. Kinetic models are based on the extraction mechanism of the essential oil, which involves the amount of essential oil released from the plant cell. On the principle of extracting essential oils, the mechanism of washing and diffusing is the basis for constructing the kinetic model and its assumption is developed in order to give an appropriate model. The descriptive kinetics of the hydro-distillation process are based on two assumptions: instantaneous washing followed by non-stationary diffusion and first -order kinetics (diffusion without washing). These two models were compared to select the optimal model for the extraction process. The results showed that the calamondin peel essential oil extraction process was described by a nonstationary model with an extraction rate constant (k) of 0.038 min( -1). The extraction of hydrodistillation essential oil from calamondin peels obtained the highest essential oil content (4.2%) under extraction conditions such as a water -material ratio of 3:1 mL/g, a heating power of 204 W, and an extraction time 60 min. Furthermore, the chemical composition of volatiles present in calamondin peel oil was evaluated for the sample by using GC-MS. Limonene (88.637%), Germacrene D (4.451%), and beta-Edudesmol (1.034%) were the major constituents in the essential oils.