Non-polar solvent microwave-assisted extraction of volatile constituents from dried Zingiber officinale Rosc.

A new method, non-polar solvent microwave-assisted extraction (NPSMAE), was applied to the extraction of essential oil from Zingiber officinale Rosc. in closed-vessel system. By adding microwave absorption medium-carbonyl iron powders (CIP) into extraction system, the essential oil was extracted by the non-polar solvent (ether) which can be heated by CIP. The constituents of essential oil obtained by NPSMAE were comparable with those obtained by hydrodistillation (HD) by GC-MS analysis, which indicates that NPSMAE is a feasible way to extract essential oil from dried plant materials. The NPSMAE took much less extraction time (5 min) than HD (180 min), and its extraction efficiency was much higher than that of conventional polar solvent microwave-assisted extraction (PSMAE) and mixed solvent microwave-assisted extraction (MSMAE). It can be a good alternative for the extraction of volatile constituents from dried plant samples.