Extraction and isolation of Pistacia lentiscus L. essential oil by supercritical CO2

Supercritical CO2 extraction coupled to a fractional separation technique (SFE) was used to isolate essential oil from the leaves and berries of Pistacia lentiscus L. The technique adopted allowed us to separate the volatile oil from waxes. In the case of the leaf essential oil, the yield was 0.45% by weight of the charged material. The chemical composition of the oil, determined by GC-MS analysis, revealed the presence of caryophyllene (31.38%), germacrene D (12.05%) and gamma-cadinene (6.48%). Remarkable differences were noticed in the corresponding hydrodistilled oil, composed chiefly by beta-pinene (18.71%), beta-phellandrene (12.83%) and beta-caryophyllene (13.22%). The yield of volatile oil obtained or treating Pistacia lentiscus berries was only 0.2%. beta-myrcene, alpha-pinene and alpha-phellandrene are the compounds characteristic of the oil obtained with both methods, SFE and hydrodistillation. Copyright (C) 2002 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.