Kinetic Modeling of Essential Oil Extraction by Hydrodistillation of Xylopia aethiopica (Dunal) A. Rich Fruits from Congo-Brazzaville
The extraction kinetics of the essential oil of Xylopia aethiopica (Dunal) A. Rich by hydrodistillation was studied for modeling its process and optimizing its yield. The oils obtained, analyzed by GC/MS, consists mainly of pinenes, sabinene, myrenal, terpinene-4-ol, limonene. Experimental data were fitted into first and second order kinetics for a 2-steps extraction, washing and diffusion, of the phenomenological model, according to the hypothesis used. The essential oil which moves inner vegetable cells by diffusion and is extracted at the surface of the particle by washing with an extraction solvent. When the washing step is instantaneous compared to that of diffusion, the mechanism, which is under diffusion control, admits first order. Considering both washing and diffusion steps, kinetic order became 2, in agreement with the Peleg model. The Monod and Langmuir models also fitted experimental data. All these models validated by the experimental data with determination coefficients R2> 0.96 can be used for optimizing the extraction of the essential oil of Xylopia aethiopica (Dunal) A. Rich.