Abstract
Cananga oil has high economical value because of its utilisation as fragrance and food flavour. In the present work, the oil was isolated by steam distillation and organic solvent extraction from dry mature flowers of Cananga odorata Hook. fil. et Thomson, forma macrophylla. Chloroform and hexane were used as solvents with different polarities. The yield of volatile oil and its grouped compounds (LOC, sesquiterpenes hydrocarbons and HOC) was investigated as a function of time. LOC consists of oxygenated monoterpenes and other light oxygenated compounds whereas HOC comprises oxygenated sesquiterpenes and other heavy oxygenated compounds. The oil yields of 5.1, 3.8 and 2.5 % dry matter were obtained with chloroform (8 h), hexane (8 h) and steam distillation (16 h), respectively. The isolation rate was described by a first-order kinetics equation. The rate was lowest with steam distillation, intermediate with hexane extraction and best with chloroform extraction. The oil composition was analyzed by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. The steam-distilled oil and chloroform oil had a similar composition, with a high content of oxygenated compounds (61.7% and 58.3%), while hexane oil was rich in sesquiterpenes hydrocarbons (66.5%).