Myrtuscommunis L. is commonly known as “Ades” in Ethiopia and is a popular evergreen shrub plant grown in many regions of world. Myrtuscommunis essential oils have a potential to be used in pharmaceutical and cosmetic/perfumery industries as well as in aromatherapy and alternative medicines. With such applications, there is a huge demand for Myrtuscommunis essential oils worldwide. Hence, there is a need to improve the quality and quantity of the essential oils produced. The aim of the study is to extract the essential oil using soxhlet extractor. The essential oil was characterized by the parameters that affect the quality and yield of essential oil. Based on the result percentage yield of essential oil ranges from (12.5 % - 92.54 %) in fresh leaf sample and (5.7 % - 43.68 %) dry leaf sample which indicates that Myrtuscommunis fresh leaves possesses the highest amount of oil. The analysis of variance of essential oil yield indicated that there is a significance difference among polar and non-polar solvents used for extraction.The coefficient of variation obtained from the result indicated that about (47.76 %) which is larger than the critical value (6.26) as given by F-distribution. The highest amount of Myrtus oil is obtained from nonpolar solvent n-hexane. Furthermore, the results from the characterization of the oils showed that Myrtuscommunis leaf oil is denser than those obtained from dry leaf sample, so best for soap making.Hence, additional extraction method should be considered and further investigation of biochemical elements of the extract of n-hexane.

Keywords: Characterization, Essential Oil, Extraction, Myrtuscommunis