Isolationamd experimental and computational characterization of Eugenol in salt Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) and sweet Basil (Ocimum americanum)

Abstract

The main goal of this work was the isolation and experimental and computa-tional characterization of eugenol in salt basil (Ocimum basilicumL.) and sweetbasil (Ocimum americanum). The extraction of essential oil from the leaves andflowers was performed by three techniques: steam distillation, direct distillationand Soxhlet extraction. By means of acid-base reactions and solubility, eugenolwas isolated from other components in the essential oil. The characterizationof eugenol was made by infrared spectroscopy. The computational work con-sisted in the calculation of spectra by using Gauss View 4.1.2. and Gaussian03 software. The computational spectra were compared with those obtainedfrom the samples and a eugenol ́s standard. The amount of eugenol obtainedfrom the two types of basil was between 0.02 and 0.04 % as fresh basil weight.Infrared spectra had 99.8 % of correlation between computational and standardspectrum, while samples rendered an average correlation of 96.6 % for saltbasil and 94.1% for sweet basil, compared with the same standard. Soxhlet ex-traction was the best method for obtaining eugenol, although is not environ-mental friendly. The experimental and computational spectra are comparablewith the spectrum of eugenol’s standard, which means that the extractionprocess and computational calculations were appropriate.