Optimization of pre-treatments of extraction methods for quality of agarwood (Aquilaria malaccensis) essential oil

• Main Author: Nor Atikah, Mat Yusoff
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/20521/16/Optimization%20of%20pre-treatments%20of%20extraction%20methods%20for%20quality%20of%20agarwood%20%28Aquilaria%20malaccensis%29%20essential%20oil.pdf; http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/20521/

Agarwood tree is one of the source production of resin and known as fragrant wood that have a highly valuable product in the global market. However, the process of hydrodistillation efficiency is far from sufficient and affecting the lower product quality and oil yield. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to investigate the effect of pretreatment techniques on agarwood essential oil yield and to obtain the effective way in the extraction process. There are four different techniques being studied in soaking process initiated by sample soaked with various sample sizes (0.5 cm, 0.75 cm and 1.0 cm), soaked with water, soaked at various shaking time (1, 3 and 7 days) and soaked with three types of fungi (Phanorocaete crysosporium, Trichoderma reesei and Fusarium solani). Agarwood without soak acted as a control in this research. The combination of the highest yield in pre-treatment technique was applied in two extraction methods, namely standard hydrodistillation and hydrodistillation coupled with stirrer. Then, the oil produced in all parameters studied was compared with two industrial oils. All analyses of hydrodistillation were performed in three replicate extractions to obtain an average oil yield. This research is not complete without doing the chemical analysis using Gas Chromatography with Flame Ionization Detector (GCFID) and Gas Chromatography with Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The results in pretreatment technique showed the highest oil yield extracted by agarwood size of 0.5 cm (0.44%), sample shaken for 7 days (0.34%) and soaked with fungi P.chrysosporium (0.59%). Agarwood oil extracted using hydrodistillation coupled with stirrer achieved the maximum average oil yield of 0.60% compared to standard hydrodistillation (0.48%) and two industrial oils at only (0.14% - 0.20%). This research proves that the essential oil yields were increased with the combination of optimum parameter in pretreatment technique and the application of stirrer during hydrodistillation. The results showed that 4-phenyl-2-butanone, a-guaiene, a-selinene, a-muurolene, a-elemol, guaiol, agarospirol and n-hexadecanoic acid as marker for chemical compounds detected being studied.