Extraction of Essential oil From Pimpinella Affinis Ledeb by Ultrasonic Method

The essential oil and the major component of Pimpinella affinis Ledeb was extracted by ultrasonic method. This kind of plant have many applications for medicine, cosmetics, hygienic and perfume industries. Species Pimpinella affinis Ledeb is one of the two- year calivated Pimpinella species in Iran. This research has been focused on extraction of essential oil from Pimpinella affinis Ledeb calivated in Noshahr by ultrasound method and study the influence of three parameters; ratio of solvent to mass of dried plant, ultrasonic power and sonication time to receive the highest yield of essential oil and its major component, trans-alpha-Bergamotene. The experiments were designed by response surface method (RSM) for study the parameters at three levels; ratio of water to plant (16.7,19.4 and 22.2ml/g), ultrasonic power (50,100 and 150 W) and sonication time (10, 18 and 26 min). The optimal results derived from the experiments revealed that at ratio of solvent to dried plant of 22.2ml/g, power of 150 W and 26 min sonication time, the highest yield was achieved as0.838g from 100g dried plant and 0.0243 g trans-alpha-ergamotene was prepared from 100 g dired plant.