Enhanced extraction of clove essential oil by ultrasound and microwave assisted hydrodistillation and their comparison in antioxidant activity

Abstract

Clove essential oil (CEO) is recognized for its variety of bioactivities and is widely used in the fields of food and pharmaceuticals. Eugenol is the main component that causes the oil's effectiveness. This study included a bibliometric analysis to demonstrate the novelty of the CEO extraction method. A combination of ultrasound and microwave techniques was utilized to enhance the efficiency of hydrodistillation (HD) extraction of essential oil from clove bud in terms of extraction yield, extraction rate, and eugenol composition, which is a strong antioxidant agent. Meanwhile, the effects of ultrasonic extraction temperature and time, microwave distillation power and time, and the ratio of clove to water were also investigated. The optimum conditions were as follows: ultrasonic extraction was at 40 °C for 45 min, microwave distillation power was 400 W for 45 min, and the clove to water ratio was 1:20 (g/mL). The ultrasound pretreatment prior to microwave-assisted hydrodistillation (U-MHD) method obtained the CEO, which had a significantly higher extraction yield (16.80 ± 0.26 %) and a greater amount of eugenol (78.49 %) than the CEOs obtained by traditional HD and MHD methods. Corresponding to the antioxidant activity of CEO from U-MHD, it possessed the strongest DPPH radical scavenging activity with an IC₅₀ value of 2.79 ± 0.05 μg/mL, and it was comparable to the activity of eugenol. This is the first occurrence of CEO extraction employing the U-MHD procedure. This process could be used to enhance the bioactivity of CEO as well as its extraction efficiency, easy operation, rapid extraction, and eco-friendly technique. In terms of cost-analysis, MHD stands out as the most economically viable extraction method, boasting the lowest cost per 100 g product. The obtained results serve as fundamental data for implementing the scaling up of extraction processes to an industrial level.