Study of liquid-liquid equilibrium of the systems composed by components of allspice essential oil and alcoholic solvent

Abstract

Brazil stands out as one of the largest producers of essential oil and such fact is due to the high biological diversity of the country. In relation to the application fields, the essential oils are very versatile once they can be inserted in the branches of food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic,s, and others. The essential oils mainly behave as flavoring agents having also medicinal and functional capacity. Terpene hydrocarbons and oxygenated compounds are the main constituents of essential oil and the fragrance of it is attributed, mainly to oxygenated compounds. The terpene hydrocarbons, in addition to not contributing effectively to the sensory characteristics of the oil, degrade in the presence of light, oxygen, and heat, producing unpleasant odors. In order to improve the quality and stability of the oil, the oxygenated compounds should be concentrated by the partial removal of terpene hydrocarbons, being this method is known industrially as deterpenation. Several methods are proposed for the deterpenation of essential oils, among which are: supercritical fluid extraction, membrane separation, steam distillation, vacuum, and molecular distillations, selective inclusion, and liquid-liquid extraction. In this undergraduate research project, liquid-liquid equilibrium data of model systems composed of beta-caryophyllene, methyl eugenol, eugenol (compounds commonly found in the allspice - Pimenta dioica - essential oil) and mixed solvent (ethanol with different water contents) will be experimentally determined at 25.0 ± 0.1 °C. Additionally, the physical properties (viscosity and density) of the phases coming from the equilibrium study, as well as the alcoholic solvents will be also evaluated. It is worth mentioning that this undergraduate research project is associated with the Research Support Project nº 2011/02476-7, coordinated by the Advisor of this proposal.(AU)