Extraction of Citrus Hystrix D.C. (Kaffir Lime) Essential Oil Using Automated Steam Distillation Process: Analysis of Volatile Compounds

An automated steam distillation was successfully used to extract volatiles from Citrus hystrix D.C (Kaffir lime) peels. The automated steam distillation integrated with robust temperature control can commercially produce large amount of essential oil with efficient heating system. Objective of this study is to quantify the oil production rate using automated steam distillation and analyze the composition of volatiles in Kaffir lime peels oil at different controlled and uncontrolled temperature conditions. From the experimentation, oil extraction from Kaffir lime peels only took approximately less than 3 hours with amount of oil yield was 13.4 % more than uncontrolled temperature. The identified major compounds from Kaffir lime peels oil were sabinene, β-pinene, limonene, α-pinene, camphene, myrcene, terpinen-4-ol, α-terpineol, linalool, terpinolene and citronellal which are considered to have good organoleptic quality. In contrast with uncontrolled temperature, oil analysis revealed that some important volatile compounds were absent such as terpinolene, linalool, terpinen-4-ol due to thermal degradation effect from fast heating of extracted material. (author)