Estudo preliminar do uso de enzima na extração de óleo essencial de capim-limão (Cymbopogon citratus)

Abstract

The extraction of essential oils from aromatic plants is a process of high need of high raw material rate to obtain a low yield. In view of this, new technologies were studied to increase the extraction yield of the essential oil, trying to reduce the cost of production. The objective of this work was to evaluate the application of commercial cellulose (Celluclast 700 U/g, Sigma Aldrich) as a biological catalyst for the hydrodistillation process, in order to obtain a higher yield of lemon grass essential oil (Cymbopogom citratus). The process started with the pretreatment of the plant in solution with cellulase enzyme, using 0.1% of enzyme and 1.2 liters of water. Then, as the temperatures were warmed to 50 ° C for 2 hours. This solution was subjected to hydrodistillation. An average yield index of 71% for the enzyme concentration was equal to 0.1%, after the hydrodistillation process of lemon grass without the biotechnological process. This result demonstrated a process feasibility, since other authors have departed from a variation in the oil chemistry that was subjected to a similar procedure.