Extraction of essential oil from cananga (Cananga odorata) using solvent-free microwave extraction: A preliminary study

Today the production of cananga (Cananga odorata) oil still has the potential to be developed in Indonesia. But the extraction of essential oil from cananga flowers are still using conventional methods such as hydrodistillation, steamhydrodistillation and steam distillation which takes a long time to produce oil with good quality. In this research the extraction of cananga oil is done using solvent-free microwave extraction (SFME) method. The optimum yield in the extraction of cananga oil using SFME method is 2.304%. The optimum yield is obtained on the operating conditions: microwave power of 380 W, feed to distiller (F/D) ratio of 0.05 g/mL and flower size of ±0.5 cm. Based on the results of the GC-MS analysis showed that the main components of cananga oil produced by SFME method were β- caryophyllene (16.855%), benzyl benzoate (14.326%), caryophyllene oxide (13.484%) and germacrene (10.692%). Additionally, from GC-MS analysis can be said that the cananga oil that has been extracted using SFME method offers the possibility for better reproduction of the natural aroma of the flower essential oil than that obtained using the conventional method.