Bioenzyme mediated hydrodistillation (BMHD) for extraction of mint oil from mentha leaves: improvement in yield and menthol content

• Published in: Bioprocess and biosystems engineering Vol. 47; no. 9; pp. 1471 - 1482
• Main Authors: Thakiyal, Sunidhi, Bhatia, Surekha, Kaur, Charanjeet, Phutela, Urmila Gupta, Alam, Mohammed Shafiq, Sharma, Rohit
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.09.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Biotechnology; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Distillation; Distillation - methods; Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology; Enzymes; Food Science; Industrial and Production Engineering; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Mentha - chemistry; Menthol; Menthol - chemistry; Oils & fats; Pectinase; Physical properties; Plant Leaves - chemistry; Plant Oils - chemistry; Pretreatment; Research Paper; Response surface methodology; Sugar; Xylanase; Bioenzyme mediated hydro-distillation (BMHD); Mint oil; Menthol content; Hydro-distillation (HD); Mentha leaves
• DOI: 10.1007/s00449-024-03041-0
• ISSN: 1615-7591; 1615-7605

The present study optimized pre-treatment conditions for bioenzyme-mediated hydro-distillation (BMHD) for extraction of mint oil from mentha leaves and the results were compared with those of traditional hydro-distillation (HD) method using response surface methodology. The bio-enzymes produced from moringa leaves had maximum pectinase activity (287.04 µg of sugar/min/ml) followed by xylanase (87.78 µg of sugar/min/ml) while endoglucanase, exoglucanase and amylase activities were comparatively low. The optimized conditions for HD were 69.08 temperature for 173.70 min with water:sample of 10.0. The optimized conditions for enzyme pre-treatment of mentha leaves by BMHD were enzyme concentration of 8%, for a period of 120 min at an incubation period of 40 ℃. The yield (%) and menthol content (%) of the oil at optimized conditions by HD were 1.55 ml/100 g of sample and 56.40% menthol content, respectively, and for BMHD the yield and menthol content (%) of the oil at optimized conditions were 3.69% and 72.80%, respectively. It was found that BMHD leads to a 130% increase in the yield of mint oil and a 10% increase in menthol content as compared to the HD method. No significant difference in physical parameters was observed in mint oil extracted via both methods. Therefore, BMHD is a cost-effective and sustainable approach having an edge over the HD method without compromising the quality and could be a viable approach for commercial purposes.