Optimization of microwave assisted Hydrodistillation in Oil extraction

In the wake of energy crisis, the alternatives for energy sources are much demanded. the use of herbs and plants in food industry has a long history. the disversity among the components of the plants has resulted in their use in many applications including flavors and medicine. The conventional methods for the extraction of essential oils such as Hydrodistillation (HD)and soxhlet in which the essential oils are evaporated by heating a mixture of water and plant materials followed by the liquefaction of the vapors in a condenser. These methods suffers from several disadvantages including losses in the volatile compounds, long extraction time and degradation of some components through thermal process.Microwave heating has an incontestable place in analytical and organic laboratory practices. In this book, microwave-assisted hydrodistillation (MAHD)was used to extract an essential oil from ginger. Results were compared with conventional hydrodistillation method. Results show that MAHD faster in extraction time, yield and costs compared with HD method.