Abstract

Traditional hydrodistillation (HD) and ultrasound-assisted extraction method (UAE) have been compared and evaluated for their quantitative and qualitative compositions of the isolated essential oil from fresh page mandarin flowers. Thirty-eight flower components and twenty-nine flower components in the UAE and HD method, respectively including: aldehydes, alcohols, ketons, monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and other components were indentified and quantified. The major flavor components of oil obtained by UAE were β-sinensal, α-sinensal, linalool, limonene, sabinene, ocimene, (z)-β-farnesene and E,E-α-farnesene. The major flavor components of oil obtained by HD were β-sinensal, α-sinensal, linalool, limonene, sabinene, ocimene and terpinene-4-ol. The UAE method offers important advantages over HD method, namely: provides a higher amount of oxygenated compounds. It offers also the possibility for a better reproduction of natural aroma of the essential oil from page mandarin flowers than the HD method. UAE method showed the highest content of aldehydes and alcohols. Since the aldehydes and alcohols content of citrus oil is considered as one of the more important indicators of high quality, method apparently has a profound influence on Page Mandarin oil quality.

Key words: Page mandarin flower, ultrasound-assisted extraction, hydrodistillation, oxygenated components.