Effect of Solvent, Time and Particle Size on Yield of Simarouba glauca Oil

Abstract

Simarouba glauca kernel oil was extracted by using three solvents namely n-hexane, acetone and ethyl acetate. The factors considered for extraction of oil were extraction time (1-3 hours), soildsolvent ratio (0.05-0.25 g/ml) and particle size of grounded Simarouba glauca kernel (0.6-1.0 mm) and Box-Behnken design of RSM (Response Surface Methodology) was used for modelling of extracted oil. The effect of each factor (independent variable) on oil yield was discussed by using suggested model of R2 values of 0.9974, 0.9873 and 0.9884 for n-hexane, acetone and ethyl acetate respectively. An optimization study by using genetic algorithm showed that the oil yield of 67.03 % would be maximum for n-hexane with extraction time of 3 hours, solid-solvent ratio of 0.05 g/ml and particle size of 0.636 mm. The physiochemical properties of extracted oil was satisfactory and there was no significant change in the behaviour of FT-IR spectrum for each of solvent.