Healthy hydrosol production from styrax resin harvesting waste using steam distillation

Abstract

Abstract Styrax resins or benzoin contain aromatic compounds that applied for medicine, perfumery, food ingredients and others. The resins harvested from Styrax trees were distilled to produce essential oils and hydrosols. Unfortunately, the distillate water usually discarded when separating the primary oils. The objective of study was to evaluate the hydrosol production derived from steam distillation process using various qualities of styrax resin. The materials used are the first grade and harvesting waste resin collected from community’s forests in Humbang Hasundutan, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Three replicates of both resin quality were analysed for moisture content, then steam distillation applied for essential oils and hydrosols production. The research shows that at termination of distillation, the best quality resins produced approximately 3.18 kg (31.8%) and 2.74 kg (27.4%) hydrosol from the waste resin. The essential oils production from first quality is higher than the lowest, approximately 64 g (yield 0.64%), while residue resins produce 53 g (0.53%). It is estimated 7.7% of water in hydrosol derive from waste resin assuming all water contained evaporates and condenses to hydrosol. Considering harvesting residues disposed and unutilized, distillation of lowest quality resin for hydrosol production proposes an alternative strategy for optimizing the forest resources utilization.