isolation of foeniculum vulgare essential oils by subcritical water extraction and compared with hydro distillation

Subcritical water extraction (swe) of essential oil from foeniculum vulgare (f# vulgare) was performed and compared with customary techniques such as hydro distillation# the amount of main components at different temperatures (90, 107#5, 125, 142#5 and 160 oc) and mean particle sizes (smaller than 0#25 , between 0#25 and 0#5, between 0#5 and 0,71, between 0#71 and 1 and bigger than 1 mm ) and flow rate 1#25 ml/min and 65 min extraction time were investigated at 15 bar pressure in swe# the separation and recognition of the components were carried out by gas chromatography (gc)-flame ionization detection and gc-mass spectrometry# the best operating conditions for the swe of f# vulgare were determined to be at the temperature of 125 oc and flow rate of 1#25 ml/min for 65 min extraction time and between 0#5 and 0#71mm particle size# in compare to hydro distillation method, the swe method resulted in more valuable essential oil with respect to the oxygenated components#