Influencia de la temperatura del aire de secado en la cantidad y composición de aceite esencial de Cordia verbenacea

Abstract

The Cordia verbenacea species, known as Erva Baleeira has been mostly studied by its pharmacologic properties since it has a curative potential as an anti-inflammatory, an analgesic, and an anti-ulcer gene; however, the effect of the drying process on this species has not been analyzed yet. The main purpose of this work was to evaluate the influence of the drying air temperature in the quantity and quality of the cordia s essential oil; therefore, in order to reach that objective, some leaves of this plant species were collected during august of 2013 from the Experimental Vale do Piranga farm, which belongs to EPAMING. Consequently, the vegetal material was carefully selected and dried. The stablished temperatures for that process were 40, 50, 60, and 70 Celsius degrees, with the aim of evaluating the quantity and quality of the essential oil obtained from dried leaves compared to fresh leaves oil. A Clavenger type apparatus was used for the essential oil extraction from cordia leaves and afterward, the appropriate gas-chromatographic analysis was performed (GC-MS-GCFID). In summary, the results of the study allow one to conclude that the content of the cordia s essential oil was affected by the drying air temperatures while the one obtained from fresh leaves remained unaltered. In addition, between all the active principles found, only α- humulene had a deducted concentration due to the influence of the drying process compared to the fresh plant.