Distillation of essential oils and hydrolat from Norwegian forestry residues to improve value creation in forestry industry

The major compounds of studied samples were found to be bornylacetate (29.40%), camphor (26.43%) and gama-myrcene (7.47%) in Norway spruce; camphene (22.03%), bornylacetate (21.64%) and alfa-pinene (16.62%) in Scots pine; bornylacetate (31.25%), limonene (17.27%) and alfa-pinene (15.85%) in Birch and borneol (12.38%), alfa-pinene (10.36%) and germacrene D (9.86%) in Peppermint; our findings and the data obtained from literature show considerable variation in the means of essential oil compositions; bornylacetate (29.40%) and camphor (26.43%) were detected the chemotypes of Norway spruce; camphene (22.03%) and bornylacetate (21.64%) were determined the chemotypes of Scots pine; bornylacetate (31.25%) and limonene (17.27%) were identified the chemotypes in Birch; borneol (12.38%) and alfa-pinene (10.36%) were found to be chemotypes of Birch. In addition, obtained chemical data from this study might be helpful in potential usefulness and medicine (chemotaxonomy) of Birch and Scots pine. Moreover, these results may constitute a significant connection between antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant, etc. activities and chemical composition for the future development of tree and plant extracts as an antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant, etc. agents can be used as a potential preservative in food products.

Obtained chemical data from this study might be helpful in potential usefulness and medicine (chemotaxonomy) of Birch and Scots pine. Moreover, these results may constitute a significant connection between antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant, etc. activities and chemical composition for the future development of tree and plant extracts as an antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant, etc. agents can be used as a potential preservative in food products. The water distillation applied in this study, with the proposed rate, the powder-to-water ratio, process duration and temperature, was selective enough to determine a specific compound of essential oils at sufficient oils yield. However, for the future references the optimum water distillation parameters should be determined by a techno-economic analysis.

Norwegian forestry residues consist of a mixture of tree branches, needles, leaves, cones, top of trees, bark, twigs and some wild forest plants. These residues must be removed regularly to limit fire propagation and facilitate the mobility of forest maintenance teams or fire-fighters. Usually, and despite their significant potential value, these residues are often underexploited and thus their potential value as natural products are frequently lost. In general, most of the species from the forest ecosystem contain essential oils that contribute to their attractive aromas as well as their antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. In recent years, consumers have developed an ever-increasing interest in natural products as alternatives for artificial additives, pharmacologically and aromatherapy relevant agents. Among them, essential oils have gained great popularity in the food, cosmetic, as well as the pharmaceutical industries and personal health care. The underlying idea of this project is to use the green solvent distillation process to isolate and produce compunds of essential oils and hydrolat from a low-value residues into selected high-value products on Norwegian marked. ForestSence targeted markets for essential oils/hydrolat componends are aromatherapy (perfume fragrances, diffuser oils, candles), personal care/hygiene products (deodorant and body lotion) and household cleaning products (surface antibacterial spray, carpet fresheners, stain removers). Even though, essential oils from selected plans shown to have bioactive effects few of the specific compounds we are targeting are commercially available, but none of them extracted from Norwegian forestry residues. The experimental work of ForestSense covers the entire value chain from feedstock sourcing via identification and quantification of individual compounds to the optimization of distillation process in terms of essential oils/hydrolat yields and their application to products.