Rosmarinus officinalis (commonly known as rosemary) is a widely used medicinal and aromatic herb. It has
been used since Hippocrates for its soothing and beneficial effects and has antibacterial,
anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Aim of the present work was to study
the chemical composition of essential oil (EO) of rosemary cultivated in Greece, as
well as to define the pilot scale distillation conditions that maximize its yield
and optimize specific bioactive compounds’ abundance. All distillations were conducted
at an industrial distillery, implementing a Face-Centered Composite experimental design,
in order to optimize the yield and relative abundance of compounds of interest, by
varying the process parameters of steam distillation: time, temperature and pressure.
EOs’ composition was determined by Headspace GC-MS analysis. Among the chemical compounds
identified in the rosemary EO, a-pinene is the most prominent constituent under all distillation conditions applied.
Data processing showed that the factor that mainly affects the yield is time. Optimal
region of the independent variables was determined by conducting three-dimensional
response surface analysis of the independent and dependent variables, choosing yield,
eucalyptol and camphor abundance, as optimization criteria.
