Characterization of citrus lemon (peel skin) oil by using soxhlet extraction

Citrus Lemon fruit is one of the most popular citrus species due to it benefits in many applications. This fruit is very well known for widely being used in food industry, especially in the production of juice. However, after were separated from the fruit that being used to produce juice, it peels usually being abandoned and thrown away. Surprisingly, this part of citrus lemon by-product actually can be useful and believed to contains of components that have potential to bring many benefits to human especially for the health issues. In addition, the environmental problems cause by the waste product from this fruit which typically not being handle in a proper way can be eliminate or at least can be reduce. The extraction method that known as Soxhlet Extraction by using the organic solvents will be use in this study. This extraction method was chosen due to the factors such as the simplest method, it potential to produce the higher amounts of essential oil as well as inexpesive. This work has two main objectives which are to determine oil yield in citrus lemon (peel skin) by using Soxhlet Extraction method and to determine the components exist in citrus lemon (peel skin) by using Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) Analysis and functional group of citrus lemon peel by using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) Analysis. As being mentioned in the objectives, this study was conducted by using several main equipments which are Soxhlet Extractor and rotary evaporator at Fluid Mechanics Laboratory as well as GCMS and FTIR equipment at Instrumentation Laboratory, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, UiTM Shah Alam. The highest percentage of oil yield was found to be by using Chloroform as a solvent with 30.6627%. The results were followed by Acetone and n-Hexane with percentage of oil yield 30.0613% and 27.4790% respectively. The GCMS analysis has shown positive results. Firstly, for the extraction of oil by using Chloroform as a solvent, there are three main components were found to be dominant which are Coumarin, α-Pinene and Psoralens (Furanocoumarins). As by using Acetone as a solvent in extraction, the dominant main compound ere Benzoic acid and Phenol. Meanwhile by using n-Hexane as a solvent, the dominant component was n-Hexadecanoic acid. The FTIR Analysis with objective to determine the functional group was conducted successfully as well. By using Chloroform as a solvent, the functional groups presented were Aliphatic primary amine, Alkene, Alkane, Vinyl Ether and Esters. As for by using Acetone, the functional groups were found to be Alcohol, Alkane, Nitro compound, Vinyl Ether, Halo compound, Esters, Aliphatic primary amine, Imine / Oxime, Sulfuric acid and Alkene. Meanwhile for by using n-Hexane, the functional groups presented were Aliphatic primary amine, Alkane, conjugated Aldehyde, Nitro compound, Alkyl Aryl Ether, secondary Alcohol, Alkene, Alcohol, primary Alcohol and Imine / Oxime.