Extraction of Borneol and Bornyl Acetete from Ferulago Macrocarpa (Fenzl) Boiss. Using Hydrodistillation-Headspace Solvent Microextraction and Chemometrics Approach

In this study, the ability of concurrent headspace solvent micro-extraction coupled with continuous hydro-distillation (HD-HSME) as an extraction and pre-concentration technique is presented for the analysis of Ferulago macrocarpa essential oil before GC analysis. A chemometric approach has allowed to enhancement of the extraction efficiency of two major terpenoids of Ferulago macrocarpa essential oil, namely borneol and bornyl acetate, with a limited number of experiments according to the Box-Behenken design in a random order. The considered variables in this technique were sample mass, micro-drop volume of n-hexadecane, and extraction time. The results showed that the chromatographic peak areas of two major terpenoids of Ferulago macrocarpa, namely borneol and bornyl acetate, regularly change as a function of three variables (R2 ≥ 0.99). Furthermore, the box-behenken design successfully permitted the study of the main and interactive effects of variables, which described this dependence using the MLR model.  Finally, the optimum conditions for micro-extraction of borneol and bornyl acetate from Ferulago macrocarpa essential oil included 3 and 4.2 g of dried-powdered leaves, 5 and 3 µL of micro-drop volume, and the extraction time of 7 minutes, respectively.