From the aforementioned perspective, the idea has been to
develop a portable microwave assisted extraction (PMAE) which
can be used directly in the crop or the forest. Given its reduced size,
this microwave technique requires a small amount of sample in a
small glassware system which is designed as a miniature alembic
to be placed inside a microwave oven. It was a challenge to develop
a miniature alembic, suitable to provide a fast extraction of essential
oils from the fresh samples and to collect the extract by using
a Vigreux’s column as an air-cooled condenser, suitable also to be
placed inside the microwave oven. In this way,the PMAE apparatus
can provide information about the actual state of the fresh samples
and their essential oil content. This procedure is also appropriate for
teaching laboratory, does not require any special microwave equipment.
The experiment developed, additionally thanto provide a fast
information on real samples, allows the students to learn extraction,
chromatographic and spectroscopic analysis skills, and is a
dramatic visual example of rapid, sustainable and green extraction
of natural products, suitable to be introduced to commercially successful,
sustainable and green chemical processing with microwave
energy.