American Journal of Essential Oils and Natural Products

The extraction kinetics of the essential oil of Ocimum basilicum by hydrodistillation was studied for modeling its extraction process and optimizing its yield. The oils obtained, analyzed by GC/MS, are mainly composed of methylchavicol, linalool and 1, 8 cineole. Experimental data were fitted into first and second order kinetics for a 2-steps extraction (washing and diffusion) of the phenomenological model, according to the hypothesis used. When the washing step is negligible compared to that of diffusion, the mechanism, which is under kinetic control, admits first order. Considering both washing and diffusion steps, kinetic order became 2, in agreement with the Peleg model. The Monod and Langmuir models, also fitted experimental data. All these models validated by the experimental results with determination coefficients R² > 0, 90 can be used for optimizing the extraction of the essential oil of Ocimum basilicum.