Abstract
Hydrodistillation, organic solvent extraction, and enfleurage are common techniques for extracting essential oils from plant samples. One factor that influences the essential oil yield is the extraction method used. The aim of the study was to choose the best method for essential oil extraction from pot marigold flowers, based on oil yield, processing time, and number of extracted compounds, for research purposes focused on genotypic characterization. Yields of essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation, organic solvent extraction, and enfleurage were 0.9 ± 0.1, 6.7 ± 0.2 and 7.1 ± 0.15 g of oil per 100 g of dry floral material, respectively. The method that provided the highest-quality oil (without pigments) was the hydrodistillation, which also contained the highest amount of non-polar compounds, but required a long time for processing many samples. Organic solvent extraction and enfleurage are faster for processing, but their extracted oils contain pigments. The most suitable technique for processing many samples in a short period of time was enfleurage because it provided an oil yield seven-fold higher than hydrodistillation and oil with less pigments than organic solvent extraction did. In addition, oil obtained by enfleurage contained the two main compounds in pot marigold flowers, α-cadinene and δ-cadinene.