Chemical analysis of essential oil extracted from pomelo sourced from Bangladesh

This research aims to extract essential oils from the peel of two varieties of Citrus maxima- White pomelo and Red pomelo of Bangladeshi origin by hydrodistillation (HD) method and characterization of the extracted oils. The study also looked into the effect of different conditions, such as type of peels, and extraction time, on the yield amount. To determine the chemical components of oil, the Gas Chromatography-mass spectrum (GC-MS) technique has been used. The three major components were, for white pomelo, limonene (67.58%), β-linalool (7.53%) and Neral (6.61%), and for red pomelo, limonene (73.82%), β-linalool (5.42%) and Neral (4.11%). The morphological changes in the oil glands of the peels of both varieties were compared to understand changes before and after the extraction. The result showed that white pomelo (WP) provides a slightly higher yield percentage in similar extraction time than red pomelo (RP), 1.09 and 0.96%, respectively. GC-MS results showed that the presence of limonene is the highest for both pomelos, although the amount is higher in RP than that of WP. However, the digital microscopy showed the drawbacks of the hydrodistillation process. The pressure in the oil glands during the distillation is too low to rupture the oil glands fully. This study will be able to broaden the path for future studies on related physicochemical and biochemical properties of pomelo varieties of Bangladesh.