Studying production of lovage essential oils in a hydrodistillation pilot unit equipped with a cohobation system

Abstract

Abstract The hydrodistillation procedure for a unit equipped with a cohobation system is presented. The production of lovage root essential oil and the difficult recovery of the phthalide content (60–85%) is studied. The general mechanism and the role of parameters involved in the extraction and co‐distillation step (plant matter/water ratio, loading ratio) then in the water/essential oil separation step (pH, condensation temperature) are investigated. This study takes into account the quantitative results (yield of essential oil, productivity) and the qualitative ones (composition of recovered essential oils). Optimal distillation conditions with respect to the energy consumption are proposed.