Seasonality and hydrodistillation time effects on the yield and chemical composition of leaves essential oil of Piper mikanianum (Kunth) Steudel

Abstract

Piper mikanianum from Santa Catarina, southern Brazil, is a well known source of safrole, an arylpropanoid precursor of several bioactive molecules. This work determined the seasonal and hydrodistillation time influence on the essential oil (EO) yield and composition. Dehydrated leaves were hydrodistilled with and without fractioning during a total period of 240 min. The EO yields varied from 0.66-0.84% with the highest values been observed during spring and summer seasons. The highest concentration of safrole was found in the winter oil (81%). In the fractioning experiments the concentration of safrole varied from 75-80% in F1 (oil distilled during 60 min) and 42-64% in F2 (oil distilled between 60-240 min).