On Extraction of Essential Oil from Lemon Peel

To study the essential oil extraction process from lemon peel, single factor approach was applied to investigate the influence of factors like the weight of the lemon peel, volume of petroleum ether, extraction time and extraction temperature upon the yield of the essential oil by Soxhlet extraction method. The result showed when the weight of the lemon peel was 25g, the extraction temperature was at 60℃ and the extraction time was 30 min, the oil yield was maximum. The oil yield of the essential oil increases as the volume of petroleum ether increases. The optimal volume of petroleum ether was 400 ml.