Extraction of the Essential Oil from Juniperus sabina L. Growing in the Republic of Moldova

Abstract

Juniperus sabina L. (Cupressaceae Gray), savin juniper or savin, is a perennial shrub, native to the mountains of central and southern Europe and western and central Asia, from Spain to eastern Siberia. The extracts and essential oil from Juniperus sabina find application in the different directions, including medicine, food industry and agriculture. In the Republic of Moldova the species Juniperus sabina is widely cultivated and used for the landscape gardening and planting of greenery. As a result of annual green pruning of existing in the republic juniper plantations, it is possible to obtain at least 2–3 tons of raw material, extracts of which possess biological activity. The biological activity of essential oil from species of Juniperus sabina growing in Moldova has not been sufficiently studied at the present time, and, moreover, there are no data on the quantitative content of essential oil in it. Therefore, the aim of the study was a comparative analysis of the quantitative content of essential oil in fresh and dried plant materials of the Juniperus sabina, growing in the conditions of the Republic of Moldova. Extraction oil from plant raw materials was performed according to a hydrodistillation method (HD) in which the essential oils are evaporated by heating a mixture of water and plant materials at atmospheric pressure, followed by the liquefaction of the vapors in a condenser (reflux) and collection in receiving vessel Ginsberg. It has been found that the amount of essential oil extracted from the plant J. sabina significantly depended on the extraction time (р ≤0.05) and was average from 1.47 ml for 1 hour of extraction to 2.16 ml for 2.5 hours (from 100 g dried plant materials in the recount of the absolutely dry weight of the raw materials). In the fresh plant materials of the Juniperus sabina amount of essential oil also significantly depended on the extraction time (р ≤0.05) and reached from 1.0 to 2.86 ml (from 100 g fresh plant materials in the recount of the absolutely dry weight of the raw materials). As a result, in the needles (acerouse leaf) of Juniperus sabina, growing in the Republic of Moldova, contains not less than 1.1% of essential oil, which is fullest extracted both from fresh and from dried raw materials, during 2.5 hours.