Green-extraction of essential oil of the species Ruta chalepensis L.: gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy-infra red analysis and response surface methodology optimization

The objective of the present study was the optimization of the parameters affecting the hydrodistillation of Ruta chalepensis L. essential oil using response surface design type Box-Behnken. After an appropriate choice of three parameters, 15 experiments were performed leading to a mathematical second-degree model relating the response function (yield of essential oil) to parameters and allowing a good control of the extraction process. The realization of the experiments and data analysis was carried out by response surface methodology (RSM). A deduced second-order polynomial expression was used to determine the optimal conditions necessary to obtain a better essential oil yield. These optimized operating conditions were: a granulometry of 2 mm, a condensation-water flow rate of 3.4 mL/min and an extraction time of 204 min. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicates that the generated second-order polynomial model was highly significant with R²=0.9589 and P<0.006. The gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of essential oil extracted from the Ruta chalepensis L. aerial parts revealed the presence of 2-undecanone, 2-nonanone and 2-decanone as major components.