Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXV, Issue 1
Written by Denisa CIOTEA, Mona Elena POPA
The aim of this paper is to present the most used preservation methods and their impact on the content and composition of following plant materials: Mentha piperita, Ocimum basilicum and Rosmarinus officinalis. The preservation methods used in this work were natural drying, freezing storage and gamma rays irradiation. Steam distillation method was used to extract the essential oils from the preserved samples. Essential oil content varied according to the preservation method tested on the plant materials. Fresh plant distillation yield for peppermint and rosemary were 0.35% and for basil was 0.88%. Dried plant and gamma rays irradiated plant distillation yield for rosemary was 1.94%, for peppermint was 0.55%, and for basil was 0.29%. Frozen plant distillation yield for rosemary was 0.50%, for peppermint was 0.15%, and for basil was 0.05%. Chemical composition of studied essential oils are analyzed by Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectrometry Detector (GC-MSD). The primary constituent detected in peppermint oil was menthan-ol, in rosemary oil was eucalyptol and in basil essential oil was estragole. As the main conclusion is the preservation methods clearly influence the content and the chemical composition of essential oils obtained from plant material.
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