Destilação fracionada do óleo essencial de P. aduncum L. rico em dilapiol

Abstract

The species Piper aduncum L. is a shrubby plant, popularly known in the Amazon as monkey-pepper (spiked pepper). An essential oil, rich in dillapiol, can be extracted from this plant, which is of great economic interest for its insecticidal and pesticide action in agriculture. This biopesticide is an alternative to replace synthetic insecticides as it is from natural origin and does not cause damage to the environment and human health. In this paper the physical properties of the essential oil of spiked pepper were analyzed. The oil was obtained by steam distillation which showed mean values of refractive index of 1.516 and specific mass 1.08 g/cm³. The fractional distillation of the essential oil was studied, in order to concentrate the compound of interest, thus, adding greater economic value and enabling its use in the production of new products. In this process a high purity compound is obtained. The assessment was performed using a mathematical model to evaluate the concentration of dillapiol at the bottom of the distillation flask by regression analysis as a function of operating time which set the experimental data very well. The analysis of the results suggests that the process of fractional distillation can be used to separate the useful constituents from the essential oils. This is only possible because the essential oils are constituted of several volatile organic compounds with different boiling points and steam pressures, making the separation viable. The highest content of dillapiol obtained experimentally by the method of fractional distillation was 95 %, operating under vacuum conditions (40 mmHg) and mean temperature of the column of 122 ºC, and the average yield obtained was 41 % (v/v).