Monitoring essential oil yields from lavender (Sevopolis variety) extracted via steam and hydrodistillation
Petya Veleva
, Galya Hristova
Abstract: The purpose of this publication was to monitor the amount of essential oil extracted from the Lavender variety Sevtopolis by two methods - Clevenger hydrodistillation and steam distillation. The research was conducted in 2021 and 2022 in an experimental field located in the Chirpan region of central Bulgaria (42°07'33"N 25°23'03"E, 147 m). Lavender plants were randomly selected from the experimental field which was divided into five plots fertilized differently with an organic biostimulant "Atlas Universal" as follows: 30, 50, 80, and 100 ml of fertilizer per plot (35 m2). One plot was left untreated as a control field. Univariate ANOVA analysis with a Post Hoc Games-Howell test was conducted to determine significant differences in the amount of essential oil extracted using both methods. Correlation analysis was used to assess the relationship between the amount of organic fertilizer used and the quantity of extracted essential oil, while regression analysis was used to create predictive models - Linear and Quadratic. The highest amounts of essential oil were obtained through steam distillation (1.677 ml for 2021 and 2.310 ml for 2022) from Field I, which was treated with 30 ml of organic fertilizer. The calculated coefficients of determination for the two distillation methods (R2=0.627; 0.660 for 2021 and R2=0.827; 0.829 for 2022) indicate that the Quadratic model is more suitable for describing the relationship between the amount of organic fertilizer and the amount of extracted essential oil. The high coefficients of determination (0.977 and 0.944) obtained from Field I when comparing the two distillation methods indicate that fertilizing with 30 ml of organic fertilizer per plot is the most suitable. Based on these findings, the research team recommends using the steam distillation method for extracting lavender oil.
Keywords: essential oil; fertilizing lavender; hydrodistillation; organic biostimulant; steam distillation; yield
Citation: Veleva, P. & Hristova, G. (2025). Monitoring essential oil yields from lavender (Sevopolis variety) extracted via steam and hydrodistillation. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 31(3), 545–552.
| References: (click to open/close) | Aboud, F. S., Abd-El Hameed, S. M., Gad, D. A. M. & Shoeip, A. (2021). Effect of organic and bio-fertilizeron growth, yield, and essential oil of Lavandula Officinalis L. Plant Grown into Sandy Soil, Plant Archives, 21(Supplement 1), 2607-2619.
Afzal, A., Munir, A., Ghafoor, A. & Alvarado, J. (2017). Development of hybrid solar distillation system for essential oil extraction. Renewable Energy, 113, 22-29, ISSN 0960-1481. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2017.05.027
Akterian, S. G., Chernev, S. P. & Cherneva, S. S. (2014). Distiller with integrated steam generator for processing essential oil bearing plants. Conference: Scientific Season Technics and Technology at: Union of Scientists in Bulgaria – Plovdiv, 12, Series Natural Sciences and Humanities (Bg).
Al-Ahbabi, A. J. A. & Al-Jubouri, Y. A. N. (2023). The effect of brassinolide and the organic fertilizer (grow-more) on the vegetative growth and the active substances of the lavender plant L. IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. ,1158 042015. DOI 10.1088/1755-1315/1158/4/042015.
Ali, B., Al-Wabel, N. A., Shams, S., Ahamad, A., Khan, S. A. & Anwar, F. (2015). Essential oils used in aromatherapy: A systemic review. Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine, 5(8), 601-611. ISSN 2221-1691. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apjtb.2015.05.007.
Caccialupi, G., Caradonia, F., Ronga, D., Ben Hassine, M., Truzzi, E., Benvenuti, S. & Francia, E. (2022). Plant biostimulants increase the agronomic performance of lavandin (Lavandula x intermedia) in Northern Apennine Range, Agronomy, 12(9), 2189. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12092189.
Cassel, E., Vargas, R., Martinez, N. & Lorenzo, D. (2009). Dellacassa, Steam distillation modeling for essential oil extraction process. Industrial Crops and Products, 29(1), 171-176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2008.04.017.
Danh, L. T., Han, L. N., Triet, N. D. A., Zhao, J., Mammucari, R. & Foster, N. (2013). Comparison of chemical composition, antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of lavender (Lavandula angustifolia L.) essential oils extracted by supercritical CO2, hexane and hydrodistillation. Food Bioprocess Technol., 6, 3481–3489. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-012-1026-z
Filly, A., Fabiano-Tixier A., Louis, C., Fernandez, X. & Chemat, F. (2016). Water as a green solvent combined with different techniques for extraction of essential oil from lavender flowers. Comptes Rendus Chimie, 19(6), 707-717.
Giannoulis, K., Evangelopoulos, V., Gougoulias, N. & Wogiatzi, E. (2020). Lavender organic cultivation yield and essential oil can be improved by using bio-stimulants. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section B — Soil & Plant Science, 70(8), 648-656. DOI: 10.1080/09064710.2020.1833974.
Hristova, G. & Veleva, P. (2022). Investigation of essential oil extraction from lavender (Seuthopolis variety) by hydrodistillation according to the process duration. Journal of Hygienic Engineering and Design, 41, 274-277. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.crci.2016.01.018
Kim, N. S. & Lee, D. S. (2002). Comparison of different extraction methods for the analysis of fragrances from Lavandula species by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. J. Chromatogr. A., 982(1), 31-47. doi: 10.1016/s0021-9673(02)01445-0. PMID: 12489854.
Li, Y., Fabiano-Tixier, A. & Chemat, F. (2014). Essential Oils as Reagents in Green Chemistry. Springer, ISBN: 978-3-319-08448-0.
Liu, B., Fu, J., Zhu, Y. & Chen, P. (2018). Optimization of microwave-assisted extraction of essential oil from lavender using response surface methodology. Journal of Oleo Science, 67(10), 1327-1337. Online ISSN 1347-3352, Print ISSN 1345-8957. https://doi.org/10.5650/jos.ess18019.
Radwan, M., Morad, M. M., Ali, M. M. & Wasfy, K. I. (2020). A solar steam distillation system for extracting lavender volatile oil. Energy Reports, 6, 3080–3087. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2020.11.034.
Slavova, G. & Ducheva, T. (2018). Production of lavender in Bulgaria and France pres? the last decade, economic opportunities and prospects. Management and Sustainable Development, 3(70).
Wainer, J., Thomas, A., Chimhau, T. & Harding, K. (2022). Extraction of essential oils from Lavandula intermedia ‘Margaret Roberts’ using steam distillation, hydrodistillation, and cellulase-assisted hydrodistillation: Experimentation and cost analysis. Plants, 11(24), 3479. https:// doi.org/10.3390/plants11243479.
Zheljazkov, V., Astatkie, T. & Hristov, A. (2012). Lavender and hyssop productivity, oil content, and bioactivity as a function of harvest time and drying. Industrial Crops and Products, 36(1),222-228. ISSN 0926-6690. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2011.09.010. |
|
| Date published: 2025-06-24
Download full text 
