Hello dear steemian, tonight i feel a bit healthier than yesterday, So, i have a chance to create a post. Previously, I will explain some process about essential oil extraction from orange peel, in this process involve decantation and distillation. Actually, there are several way to extract essential oil, in this post i will explain some distillation with solvent evaporation method. Lets to the point.

Blend of Orange Peel

---

Everyone known the orange peel can be as mosquito coil, so I will share my experience in malikussaleh university aceh, when we extract the essential oil of orange peel. The extraction process of essential oil is an chemical aromatic process, the choice of solvent is very important, if the solvent boiling point is higher than essential oil it will damage the aromatic structure, so it can affect the quality of essential oils. Example, water has a boiling point of 100^oC, to evaporate the water we need temperature 100^oC, while ethanol has a boiling point of 60^oC, so to evaporate ethanol the temperature only require about 60^oC. Therefore, ethanol is preferable than water in the extraction process of essential oils, because low temperatures will not damage the aromatic structure. Our extraction process includes several steps, namely decantation and distillation. What is Decantation mean?

Decantation of Peel and Ethanol

---

We bought 3kg sunkist orange and took it peel, we mix orange peel with ethanol into blender for smoothing, we blend until all peel smooth perfectly, after it removing from blender we put into separator funnel, in this funnel the solid and liquid will separate, the liquid stay downstair and the solid will going up, this process called as Decantation, the decantation process takes more than 24 hours, in order for complete separation, then the solution moved into the flask for distillation. In this solution, the orange peel oil and ethanol have been mixed, so ethanol or solvent must be evaporated, the evaporation of ethanol can be done with distillation process.

The solution of decantation process introduced into the distillation flask, The ethanol must be evaporated to obtain essential oils, the temperature used is 60^oC, because at this temperature ethanol will evaporate and leave the essential oil in the flask, the evaporation process of all ethanol takes 11 hours, from 800 mL of mix solution. What is distillation mean ?

Solvent Evaporation

---

"Distillation is a method of chemical separation based on difference velocity or volatility of materials."

But we often define distillation is a phase separation process based on difference boiling point, for example like evaporating solvent in volatile oil solution, boiling point of ethanol 60^oC, So, at this temperature all ethanol will evaporate and leave water and essential oil, essential oil is not soluble in water. the distilled oil of this distillation process still feel citrus fragrance, this was because solvent effect of low boiling point, if solvent boiling point was high, this can damage the aromatic structure that can affect the quality of distilled.

Chemical of Orange Peel

Orange peel oil can be used as a mosquito coil, its oil extraction process as I have explained above, there are some sources told, they insert the peel into electric mosquito repellent, I think this method is less effective, because after 1 hour orange peel will dry on electric mosquito repellent.

The orange contains vitamin C, and its peel contains essential oils that can be used to scent the room, this happens because orange peel contains aromatic ingredients, the quality of its essential oil influenced by aromatic structure, some chemicals in orange peel can be seen in table following.

Chemical	Percentage
Limonene	95%
Myrcene	2%
Noctanal	1%
Pinene	0,4%
Linanool	0,3%
Decanal	0,3%
Sabiene	0,2%
Geranial	0,1%
Neral	0,1%
Dodecanal	0,1%
Others	0,5%

^{Source :Data}

---

Conclusion

---

In any extracts of essential oils, the choice of solvent should take precedence, since solvent evaporation at high temperatures could destroys the aromatic chain, thus, giving effect of essential oil quality.

Source
^{DistillationWikipedia
DecantationWikipedia
Extraction of Orange Peel My Thesis
Data Source Inggritmemo
Oil Extraction Refference media.neliti}

---

Support Scientist By Use #science tag or join @steemSTEM

---

---

Follow Me Hive account@jamhuery

---