A short extraction time of high quality hydrodistilled cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum L. Maton) essential oil using ultrasound as a pretreatment

doi:10.1016/j.indcrop.2014.12.012

Industrial Crops and Products

Volume 65, March 2015, Pages 287-292

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2014.12.012 Get rights and content

Highlights

•
Ultrasound assisted extraction improves the extractibility of cardamom oil.
•
Ultrasound treatment affects the duration of hydrodistillation.
•
Ultrasound extraction followed by hydrodistillation yields superior quality oil.
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Ultrasound yields oil with a high α-terpinyl acetate/1,8-cineole ratio.

Abstract

The influence of ultrasonic assisted extraction (UAE) followed by hydrodistillation of Elettaria cardamomum L. seeds was investigated. The yield, volatile components and sensory characteristics of the extracted essential oils (EO) were evaluated. Power of ultrasonic and time of sonication were optimized. The chemical composition of the EO was identified by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Results revealed that the major components of cardamom essential oils varied between 26.59% and 39.34% for 1,8-cineole, and between 22.94% and 40.56% for α-terpinyl acetate, depending on the extraction conditions. The UAE technique facilitated short time extraction, improved extraction efficiency and produced good quality cardamom essential oil.

Introduction

Small cardamom, known as the “Queen of spices”, which belongs to the family of Zingiberaceae, is a rich spice obtained from the seeds of a perennial plant, Elettaria cardamomum L. (Maton) (Chempakam and Sindhu, 2008). Its dried fruit is one of the highly priced spices in the world. The dried fruit is used either whole or in ground form as a flavoring agent and also in the medicinal preparations. The most functionally important constituent of cardamom is its volatile oil (Pruthi, 1976). The small cardamom is more in demand than large cardamom (Amomum subulatum Roxb.) as a commercial product, because of its fine aroma (Govindarajan et al., 1982). In Arab countries and India, it is a common flavoring ingredient for coffee (Raghavan, 2007). In Scandinavia, as well as in Germany and Russia, it is used to flavor cakes, pastries and sausages (Mahmud, 2008).

Cardamom is primarily cultivated in southern India, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Guatemala (Ravindran and Madhusoodanan, 2002). The chemical composition of cardamom varies considerably with variety, region and age of the product. The content of volatile oil in the seeds is strongly dependant on storage conditions (Korikontimath et al., 1999). Cardamom fruits are gathered just before they are ripe in order to conserve the seeds inside the capsule, and then distilled to obtain the essential oil with an average yield from 2% to 5% (Lucchesi et al., 2007).

Different methods, viz; steam distillation, hydrodistillation, supercritical extraction, etc., are being used for essential oil recovery from spices. Hydrodistillation is the common and most frequently used method for extraction of essential oil (Chandran et al., 2012). This method is time consuming. On the other hand, the volatile and thermally sensitive components of essential oils may be lost in hydrodistillation conditions (Xie et al., 2013). The confines of the conventional techniques make obstinate to search for the new techniques that are equally competent and at the same time economically viable (Ashok kumar and Mason, 2007). In tissues where the desired components are located within cells, pre-ultrasound treatment by size reduction to maximize surface area is critical for achieving rapid and complete extraction (Vinatoru, 2001, Riera et al., 2004, Balachandran et al., 2006). Ultrasound assisted extraction technique (UAE) is an inexpensive, simple and efficient alternative to conventional extraction techniques (Wang and Weller, 2006). The technical advantages of UAE are mass transfer intensification, cell disruption, improved solvent penetration and capillary effect, high recovery yield and short extraction time confirmed that it is an acceptable extraction method (Yang and Zhang, 2008, Chemat and Zill-e-Huma Khan, 2011, Samarama et al., 2014).

The main objective of this research was to evaluate the suitability of ultrasound assisted extraction (UAE)–hydrodistillation combined technique compared to conventional hydrodistillation method for the recovery of high quality essential oil from cardamom seeds.

Section snippets

Plant material and chemicals

Green colored, dry cardamom seeds (E. cardamomum L. Maton) of Guatemala origin were obtained from the local market in Saudi Arabia. Reference compounds 1,8-cineole and α-terpinyl acetate were purchased from Sigma–Aldrich (Germany).

Hydrodistillation (HD)

The cardamom seeds (40 g) were separated from the husk, ground into a fine powder by a hammer mill and sieved through a 0.5 mm screen, immersed in 1 L water, placed in a 2 L round bottom flask. Distillation was carried out using a lighter than water Clevenger type

Physical characteristics of Guatemalan cardamom

Physical characteristics such as weight of 100 capsules, number of capsules in 100 g, the seed to husk ratio and length of capsules are given in Table 1.

These results are in accordance with those obtained by Kizhakkayil et al. (2006) for Guatemalan cardamom.

Extraction time, yield and chemical composition of the essential oil

The effect of extraction method on the total extraction time, yield and chemical composition are summarized in Table 2 and illustrated in Fig. 1, Fig. 2 .

Concerning the comparison of the five techniques in terms of total extraction time and

Conclusions

Cardamom (E. cardamomum L. Maton) seeds are a potential source of essential oil with a fine aroma. In order to achieve the maximal extraction performance by means of UAE, the optimal operating conditions include water-to- fine dried seeds ratio of 12, sonication at 10% of the maximal power and a sonication time of 30 min prior to hydrodistillation for another 30 min. Sonication power and sonication time highly influenced the yield and quality (high α-terpinyl acetate/1,8-cineole ratio) of the

Conflict of interest

I wish to confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest associated with this publication and there has been no significant financial support for this work that could have influenced its outcome. I confirm that there are no other persons who satisfied the criteria for authorship but are not listed.

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A short extraction time of high quality hydrodistilled cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum L. Maton) essential oil using ultrasound as a pretreatment

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Plant material and chemicals

Hydrodistillation (HD)

Physical characteristics of Guatemalan cardamom

Extraction time, yield and chemical composition of the essential oil

Conclusions

Conflict of interest

Chem. Eng. Process.

Ultrason. Sonochem.

Ultrason. Sonochem.

Innov. Food Sci. Emerg. Technol.

J. Chromatogr. A

Food Chem.

J. Food Eng.

Food Chem.

J. Food Eng.

J. Chromatogr. A

Ultrason. Sonochem.

J. Chromatogr. A

Ultrason. Sonochem.

Trends Food Sci. Tech.

J. Pharm. Anal.

Sieb. Ultrason. Sonochem.