Distillation Delayed Time on The Characteristics of Lemon Peel Oil and Activity against Staphylococcus aureus

Abstract

Delay time effect (curing) in lemon peel essential oil extraction often occurs in factories when the number of distillers does not match the amount of available lemon peel. This delay time can reduce the quantity and the lemon peel oil quality due to degradation. This study aimed to determine the delay time period before distillation process that affected changes in the lemon peel oil aromatic compound quantity and quality based on the yield, limonene percentage, and the inhibitory effect of lemon peel oil on Staphylococcus aureus bacterial growth. The distillation method used the cohobation distillation technique with a delay time of 1, 3, 5, and 7 hours. Distillation process was carried out by steaming and boiling. The results showed that steam cohobation method was better than boiled cohobation method based on yield and limonene percentage. The 1-hour delay time in steam cohobation method was significantly different from other delay times in boiled cohobation method. Steam cohobation method produced 79.95% limonene. S. aureus antibacterial test at 100% oil concentration had the strongest antimicrobial activity. Therefore, the 1-hour delay time using the steam cohobation method obtained the highest yield of 0.325% and inhibition level of S. aureus at 21.375 mm.