The effects of fixed-bed drying on the yield and composition of essential oil from long pepper (Piper hispidinervium C. DC) leaves

Piper hispidinervium C.DC (Piperaceae) is popularly known as long pepper. It grows in degraded areas of natural fields in the state of Acre, Brazil. Its leaves are 3 to 4% essential oil rich in safrole, within the range of 90 to 94%. In the chemical industry, safrole is an important raw material, mainly due to two of its derivatives: heliotropin, which is widely used as a fragrance and flavoring agent, and piperonyl butoxide (PBO), a vital ingredient of pyrethroid insecticides. Natural pyrethrum in particular would not be an economical insecticide without the synergistic effect of PBO; therefore, its industrial future is linked to the continued availability of PBO. As a fragrance, safrole has many applications in household products such as floor waxes, polishes, soaps, detergents and cleaning agents. In this work, leaves were dried in a fixed-bed dryer using different drying-air temperatures (35, 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60 degrees C) and drying times (900, 2700 and 3600 seconds). Essential oil was extracted by cohobation (meaning that the condensed water that comes out of the flask is recycled) from both raw and dried leaves. The essential oil yield and safrole content are susceptible to rapid loss of moisture by Piper hispidinervium C. DC leaves. It was observed that the essential oil yield increased twice after the drying process. However, safrole content decreased about 20 percent when temperature was above 50 degrees C and drying times were more than 2700 minutes.