OPTIMIZATION OF GINGER OLEORESIN EXTRACTION FROM FRESH GINGER BY USING MICROWAVE - ASSISTED ENERGY

Nowadays, the active compounds from natural products are interested in not only research fields but also industrial area. Steam distillation is widely employed for the isolation of bioactive substances from natural sources. However, the process is usually long time consuming, high energy consumption and unwanted chemicals can be entrained with the main products. Microwave-assisted extraction is now recognized as an efficient extraction technique that dramatically reduces extraction time, increases yields and higher quality of the extracts can be obtained. The aim of this study is evaluation of the major factors affected by operating parameters such as concentration of solvent, radiation time, ratio of microwave power to material, volume of solvent on yield of products by microwave-assisted extraction. In addition, comparison between traditional extraction methods and microwave-assisted extraction is also carried out. The results show that application of microwave energy for the extraction of active substances from fresh ginger have faster heating, reduce thermal gradients and extraction time.