Progress in Essential Oils

Clementine Oil

According to Verzera et al. (2009), clementine was first discovered as an accidental hybrid in a mandarin plantation, where the trees were grown from seed in the vicinity of Oran, Algeria. It is known botanically as Citrus clementina Hort. ex Tan. [syn. C. reticulata Blanco (clementine cultivar)]. Because of the high quality of clementines, they have become very popular in Italy in Calabria and Sicily, where the main cultivars are ‘Commune,’ ‘Monreal,’ ‘Oroval’ and ‘Nules.’

Five fresh clementines that were purchased from a local market in Spain were peeled, taking care not to injure the fruit segments. The peels were carefully sectioned and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen, after which the solids were powdered using a blender. Extraction of this powder was performed immediately using methylene chloride (100 g powder and 5 x 100 mL solvent). After removing any traces of water with anhydrous Na2SO4, the extracts were combined and concentrated to 100 mL using a rotary film evaporator. The volatile fraction was then isolated using high-vacuum distillation. The volatile fraction was subjected to analysis by Buettner et al. (2003) using GC/MS.

It was also sensorially analyzed using GC-olfactometry. Although the authors did not report any qualitative data, they did characterize α-pinene, (Z)-3-hexenal, myrcene, limonene, octanal, 1-octen-3- one, (Z)-octa-1,5-dien-3-one, nonanal, (Z)-6-nonenal, citronellal, decanal, (E)-2- nonenal, (Z)-4-decenal, linalool, octanol, undecanal, (E,Z)-2,4-nonadienal, (E,E)- 2,4-nonadienal, dodecanal, carvone, (E)-2-undecenal, (E,E)-2,4-decadienal, (E)-2-dodecenal, (E)-2-tridecenal, trans-4,5-epoxy-(E)-2-decenal, sotolone (3-hydroxy-4.5-dimethyl-2(5H) furanone), wine lactone (3,6-dimethyl- 3,4,5,7-detrahydro-3H-1-benzofuran- 2-one), β-sinensal, α-sinensal and vanillin as being components of this volatile fraction of clementine peel.

Click to download the complete article.

More in Ingredients