Essential Oil Purification Using Chromatographic Silica Resin

The purification of flavor and fragrance components from essential oils, such as lemon or orange oils, can be performed on DAVISIL® Chromatographic resin. This study details a procedure for purifying Limonene and a-Terpinene, two non-polar hydrocarbons in the terpene class from their polar terpenoid analogs and other polar compounds found in citrus oil.

Citrus peel contains abundant essential oil, which can be used in many fields, such as medicine, foods, beverages, and cosmetics. Citrus oil consists of terpenes (over 95%) such as Limonene and Terpinene and oxygenated compounds (below 5%) like Sinensal, Neral, Octanal, Tridencanal, etc., and waxes and pigments. Both classes of compounds are valuable and are primarily used as flavor additives in the manufacture of soft drinks (lemon, lime and orange oils represent the largest segment of U.S. essential oil imports in both volume and value). Consistent purification of the components in citrus oils is important in ensuring the production of quality products with consistent flavors and aromas from batch to batch. This can be achieved with the use of DAVISIL® silica.