Volatile oils

Definition:

Volatile oils, also known as essential oils, are

complex mixtures of volatile, aromatic
compounds derived from plants. These oils
evaporate readily at room temperature and
are responsible for the fragrance and flavor of
many plants. They are typically extracted by
distillation, expression, or solvent extraction.
 General properties
 1. Colourless when fresh but become darker in colour after prolonged standing in
air due to oxidation
 2. They are kept in cool and dry place, in air tight container preferably in full amber
colour glass.
 3. Freely soluble in chloroform and ether, fairly soluble in alcohol & insoluble in
water.
 4. Volatile oil are lighter than water except clove oil.
 5. Have high refractive index & optically active.
Occurrence
 Depending upon the plant family volatile oil are present in different secretory glands or
cells:
 1. Labiate (granular hairs)
 2. Piperaceae (parenchyma cells)
 3. Umbelliferae (oil tubes or Vittae)
 4. Pinaceae or Rutaceae (lysigenous or schizogenous cavities)

Volatile oil are present in various plant

parts:
 1. Rose (rose petals)
 2. Cinnamon (bark)
 3. Pepper mint (leaves)
 4. Conifers (all tissues)
 5. Orange (outer peel)
Significance

 Volatile oil have great importance for both plants

and human beings.
 Exact role of volatile oil in plant is unknown as
they are produced in the result of metabolism but
they have some importance for the plants as:
 1. Insect repellent
 2. To prevent destruction of flowers
 3. Attract the insect thus help in cross fertilization
or pollination
General uses


1. Flavoring agent, e.g. Lemon oil
2. Used in perfumes, e.g. Rose oil
3. As condiments, e.g. Clove oil
 4. Act as starting material for the synthesis of
other compounds like Turpentine oil

5. May interfere with respiration and electron
transport chain in various bacteria so, help in
preservation of food and cosmetics, e.g.
Eucalyptus oil
Therapeutic uses

 1. Administered as inhalation, e.g. Eucalyptus oil

 2. Administered as orally, e.g. Peppermint oil is used as
gargles & mouth washes.
 3. Carminative, e.g. Fennel, Coriander, Cardamom
 4. Digestant increase appetite, e.g. Fennel
 5. Reduce lung secretions, e.g. Menthol in
ammonium chloride syrup .
 6. Local anaesthetic, e.g. Clove oil as dental
anaesthetic
 7. Antispasmodics, e.g. Fennel & Coriander
 8. Cough preparations, e.g. Menthol
 9. Antiseptic due to phenolic contents, e.g. Phenol & Thymol.
 10. Antibacterial & antifungal, e.g. Eucalyptus oil & Thymol
 11. Anthelmintic, e.g. Chenopodium oil
 12. Increase circulation (locally) & this property is applied in lotions &

liniments, e.g. Camphor & Turpentine

 13. Irritant & cause inflammation, e.g. Turpentine


 Methods of obtaining Volatile oil
Volatile oil obtained from the plant parts depending
upon the nature of plant material various methods are
used
 1. Distillation
i. Water Distillation
ii. Water & Steam Distillation
iii. Steam Distillation
iv. Destructive Distillation
2. Expression or Ecuelle Method
3. Enfleurage Method
4. Enzymatic Hydrolysis
5. Solvent Extraction Method
1. Distillation


i. Water Distillation
 In this method those plant material is used where there
is no chance of destruction upon boiling.
 In this plant parts are placed in distillating tank,
macerate in water and heat the tank. Volatile matters
are evaporated and passed through the condenser and
collected in receiver.
 Special type of receiver are used having two outlets:
 a. Upper outlet
 b. Lower outlet
 If volatile oil are lighter than collect it from the upper
outlet otherwise lower.
 Example
 Turpentine oil
ii. Water & Steam Distillation \
 Those materials are used where there is a
chance of destruction upon boiling.
 In this method dried plant materials such as
Clove & Cinnamon powder is placed in tank.
Macerate it with water and steam is generated
and passed through the macerate materials.
 As steam passed through the macerate it
carried the volatile oil and passed through the
condenser and collected in receiver. Example
Clove & Cinnamon
iii. Direct Steam Distillation
 In this method fresh plant materials are used.
 Plant materials are placed on truck bed which is taken
in to the distillation tank. Here the plant material
contain sufficient water (moisture) no need of
maceration. Steam is passed over the fresh plant
material that derived the volatile oil and passed
through the condenser and collected in receiver.
 During this process certain components of volatile oil
may undergo hydrolysis or decompose. To prevent
this or having minimum destruction, the diffusion rate
of steam in the plant material should be high.
Example Peppermint & Spearmint
iv. Destructive Distillation
 This method is used to obtain the “Empyreumatic oils” .
 Empyreumatic oil is a oil obtained by distilling the volatile organic

substances at high temperature.

 Having burnt nature or smell due to high temperature.
 In this method the wood part or some resin of family Pinaceae is

placed in tank and heated without excess of air, decomposition takes

place and number of volatile oils are driven off.

 Number of volatile oil contain two layers:
a. Aqueous Layer
 It contains wood naphtha (methyl alcohol) &
pyroligenous acid (crude acetic acid)
 b. Tarry Layer
 It contains pine tar & juniper tar. In this the
yield of tar is 10% obtained from the wood used.
 Example
 Wood & Resin of Family Pinaceae
2. Expression or Ecuelle
Method
 Citric acid are obtained by this method: Volatile
oil are present in oil gland just beneath the
surface of outer rind of citrus fruits
 Procedure: Rolled the fruit over the
truff lined with sharp projection long
enough to penetrate in the oil glands
present in the outer rind of the citrus
fruit.
 Example
 Lemon & orange
3. Enfleurage Method

 In this method volatile oil obtained from those plant parts which
are very small and volatile oil are decomposed on distillation
process.
 Procedure :
 In this method odourless and bland fixed oil is spread as a layer
on the glass plate and the plant part like petals are placed on the
layer of the fixed oil for few hours.
 By repetitive removal of old petals and add new ones when the
fats or fixed oil absorb as much as fragrance the petals are
removed.
 Volatile oil is removed by selected solvents particularly alcohol.
 Not used now-a-day, because tiresome and time consuming.
 Still used in perfume industry. Example Rose petals
4. Enzymatic Hydrolysis

 Specific enzymes are used to get

volatile oil
 Glycosides volatile oil are obtained by
enzymatic hydrolysis of glycosides.
 Example
 Singrin give Allyl isothiocynate by the
action of enzyme Myrosin.
5. Solvent Extraction


In this method specific organic solvents
are used for the extraction of volatile oil.
 In this method recovery of solvents are
sometimes difficult.
 Used in perfume industry
 Costly method
Chemistry of volatile oil

 Volatile oil are terpenes in origin also called terpenoids or mixture of

terpenes or their derivatives.
 Terpenes are hydrocarbons
 General formula of terpene is C10 H16
 Volatile oil are the mixture of hydrocarbons and oxygenated compounds
derived from the hydrocarbons.
 Taste and odour is due to oxygenated constituents which are to some
extent soluble in water, e.g. rose water and freely soluble in alcohol, e.g.
tincture of Lemon.
 Volatile oil is composed of two portion:
 1. Eleoptenes which is hydrocarbon portion and liquid in nature
 2. Stearoptenes which is oxidized hydrocarbon portion and solid in nature


 Terpene Terpene is a molecule or group of molecule whose structure is based on
various but definite number of Isoprene units
 Isoprene It is a branched chain five carbon unit containing two unsaturated bond
with chemical formula C5H8.
 Terpenes are formed by the condensation of isoprene units which are linked with
each other
 by head to tail fashion.
 Number of isoprene units incorporated in a particular terpene
serve as the basis of the classification of these compounds


Name No. of No. of carbon
isoprene unit atoms
Monoterpenes 2 10

Sesquiterpenes 3 15

Ditrepenes 4 20

Sesterterpenes 5 25

Triterpenes 6 30

Tetraterpenes 8 40
or carotenoids
 Almost all types of organic compounds like ketones,
aldehyde, oxides, ether etc are present in the volatile oil.
 Some volatile oil has single compound with high percentage,
e.g. In Mustard oil there is 93% of Allyl isothiocynate.
 Another major group of volatile oil is Phenylpropanoids
(P.P.). these compounds contain 6 carbon phenyl ring attached
3 carbon side chain because they derived from aromatic
aminoacids like phenylalanine and tyrosine respectively.
 Immediate precursor of P.P. are cinnamic acid,
cinnamaldehyde, anisealdehyde, p-hydroxycinnamic acid,
eugenol & enethol etc.
Classification of volatile oil on
the basis of terpenes
A. Monoterpenes
 1. Acyclic Monoterpenes
 i. Citral
 ii. Geraniol
 iii. Coriandrol
 2. Monocyclic Monoterpenes
 i. Menthol
 ii. Menthone
 iii. Limonene
 iv. α-terpineol
3. Dicyclic Monoterpenes
 i. α-pinene
 ii. β-pinene
 iii. Borneol
 B. Sesquiterpenes
 1. Acyclic Sesquiterpenes
 i. Farnesol
 2. Monocyclic Sesquiterpenes
 i. Abscisic acid
 ii. Curcumene
3. Dicyclic Sesquiterpenes
 i. Cadinene
 ii. Laurene
 C. Diterpenes
 1. Acyclic Diterpenes
 i. phytol
 2. Monocyclic Diterpenes
 i. Trisporic acid
 ii. α-camphorene
3. Dicyclic Diterpenes
 i. Agathic acid
4. Tricyclic Diterpenes
 i. Abietic acid
 ii. Pimaric acid
5. Tetracyclic Diterpenes
 i. Gibberellic acid
D. Triterpenes
1. Tetracyclic Triterpenes
 i. Lanosterol
2. Pentacyclic Triterpenes
 i. β-amyrin
E. Tetraterpenes
 1. Carotenoids
F. Polyterpenes
 1. Phenyl propanoids
CLASSIFICATION OF VOLATILE
OIL ON THE BASIS OF DRUGS

1. Hydrocarbon Volatile Oil

 i. Cubeb
 ii. Turpentine oil
2. Alcoholic Volatile Oil
 i. Peppermint oil
 ii. Coriander
 iii. Cardamom
 3. Aldehyde Volatile Oil
 i. Bitter orange peel
 ii. Sweet orange peel
 iii. Lemon oil
 iv. Cinnamon
 v. Bitter almond oil
4. Ketonic Volatile Oil
 i. Camphor
 ii. Spearmint
 iii. Caraway
 iv. Buchu
5. Phenolic Volatile Oil
 i. Clove
 ii. Thyme
 6. Phenolic Ether Volatile Oil
 i. Fennel
 ii. Myrstica (Nutmeg)
 iii. Anise
 7. Oxide Volatile Oil
 i. Chenopodium
 ii. Eucalyptus
 8. Ester Volatile Oil
 i. Rosemary
 9. Miscellaneous Volatile Oil
 i. Allium
 ii. Anethum