THE EFFECT OF PRETREATMENT FERMENTATION AND DISTILLATION PROCESS ON YIELD AND QUALITY OF EUCALYPTUS LEAF OIL

Abstract

The supply of eucalyptus oil needed in Indonesia is also increasing, while the supply of eucalyptus oil is still very minimal. Therefore, in this study, an attempt was made to examine the effect of preliminary treatment and distillation process of eucalyptus leaves on the quality and yield of eucalyptus oil so that more essential oil is obtained during the distillation process. Variables used preliminary treatment of fermented leaves for 2 days, 4 days, and 6 days respectively, with distillation time of 4 hours, 5 hours and 6 hours. While the parameters analyzed were rendement, refractive index, weight type test, glucose standard and leaf microscope analysis and organoleptic test (aroma and color). The research data ware processed using a Randomized Complete Design (RAL) Factorial with 3 replications, data was analysed with ANOVA and the post hoc test was honestly significance diffirence (HSD). Level of glucose on fermentation of eucalyptus leaves at 2 days (F1) was 46% while in treatment of 6 days fermentation (F3), the glucose level decreased to 22%. The best treatment in this research was on (F3P3) with 0.94 yield, 1.48 refractive index and 0.9430 type weight (meet SNI standard), the score of organoleptic color was 3.67 (likes) and aroma was 4.02 (likes).