E3S Web of Conferences 213, 03035 (2020) https://doi.org/10.

1051/e3sconf/202021303035
ACIC 2020

Study on the Different Method of Extraction of Star Anise Oil

Cheng Haidi1,a*, Sun Tianmin1,b
1School of Chemistry and Bioengineering, Qilu Insititute of Technology, Jinan, Shandong, 250200, China

Abstract：The three reagents of anhydrous ethanol, petroleum ether and ethyl acetate were selected by
soxlet extraction, steam distillation and ultrasonic extraction to extract the star anise oil from the fine anise
powder. Three kinds of methods for extracting star anise oil were studied on different pattern organic
solvent. The result of the different volume fractions of ethanol is that the highest extraction rate is 99.7%
ethanol. It can be seen that the extraction rate are: ethanol > petroleum ether > acetic acid ethyl ester. The
different methods of extracting the star anise oil shows that the extraction rate are: soxhlet extraction
method > ultrasonic extraction method > steam distillation extraction method. In summary, it can be seen by
soxhlet extraction method and the best solvent is 99.7% ethanol.

1 Introduction is necessary to study the extraction technology of star

anise oil.
Star anise is also known as star anise and anise. Its trees At present, the common extraction methods of
grow in southwest China with an annual output of 3000 anisole oil at home and abroad include soxhlet extraction,
tons. Its color is dark brown and has a sweet taste and a steam distillation, ultrasonic extraction, supercritical
strong aromatic smell, which comes from the volatile CO2 fluid extraction, etc[11-13]. Different extracted solvent
anisaldehyde in it. Dried and mature anise contains about not only has a great influence on the work of star anise
5%-8% aromatic oil, about 22% fatty oil, protein and oil and its components, but also its physical properties[14-
shikimic acid, etc[1-2]. Star anise oil is a kind of natural 16]
.
flavor oil with complex components extracted from the There are few studies on the influence of content
fruits or leaves of anise, generally as a volatile oil-like determination and extraction effect under laboratory
liquid. The essential oil mainly contains anisole, in conditions. The methods adopted in this study are
addition, it also contains anisaldehyde, p-allyl isoprene, soxhlet extraction, steam distillation and ultrasonic
flavonoids and organic acids[3-4]. extraction to extract star anise oil. The differences
In the past decades, star anise is just a condiment to between the same method and different solvent
the cook. With the development of science and extraction and the differences between different methods
technology, more and more active components of star to extract star anise oil were studied.
anise had been discovered. In recent years, star anise oil
has been proved to have a benefit on bacteriostatic,
insecticidal and anti-free radical oxidation activities. The 2 MATERIALS AND METHODS
main ingredient in star anise oil, anisole, was also found
that exhibits various pharmacological properties such as 2.1.Materials and measurements
anesthetic, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and
antioxidant activities[5-6]. Besides, anisole has been All commercially available chemicals were of reagent
conveniently transformed to a functional monomer grade and used as received without further purification.
which possess good thermostability and good The star anise powder can be obtained by drying the star
mechanical properties[7-10]. anise under 100℃ for more than 4h, grinding and sifting
In the traditional use, star anise fruit is directly used, through a suitable sieve. Infrared spectra were measured
and the utilization rate of star anise oil is low. With the on a Nicolet 380 FT-IR spectrometer in the region of
development of the food industry, the extraction of star 400～4000 cm-1 using KBr pellets.
anise oil has replaced the use of star anise fruit because
of its small size, sanitation, easily to use, and less added
amount. In order to improve the yield of star anise oil, it

*
Corresponding author: achenghaidi163@126.com
b1172171458@qq.com

© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
E3S Web of Conferences 213, 03035 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202021303035
ACIC 2020

2.2.Method of extraction 3.Results & Discussion

2.2.1.Soxhlet extraction 3.1.FTIR measurement results

The device diagram is shown in the figure 1.

100

80

60

T(%)
40

20

Figure 1 Soxhlet extraction

0
Extraction by different solvents A mixture of 18.0g
star anise powder and 80mL organic solvent 4000 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500

(ethanol/petroleum ether/ethyl acetate) was stirred under Wavenumber(cm ) -1

50V. When mixture is close to colorless, stop heating. Figure 3 The infrared spectrum of star anise oil
Vacuum distillation with rotary evaporator will steam Since star anise oil contains 80-90% of anisole,
out a lot of solvent. The distillation ends when no infrared spectrum is used to determine whether the
condensation drops. After cooling, the mass of the extract contains anisole. As shown in figure 3:
product was weighed and the extraction rate was 3005.73cm-1 (C-H); 2934.65cm-1 (-CH3); 2856.72cm-1
calculated. (-CH2); 1600.50cm-1 (C=C); 1458.34cm-1 (-CH2);
Extraction by different volume fractions of ethanol A 1000cm-1 (C-O) and 843.55cm-1 (C-H on the benzene
mixture of 18.0g star anise powder and 80 mL ethanol ring). It can be seen that the extraction of star anise
was stirred under 50V volts. When mixture is close to contains various functional groups such as double bond,
colorless, stop heating. Repeating the above operation alkoxy groups, benzene ring in the molecule, which is
and calculating the extraction rate was calculated. basically consistent with the known structure.

2.2.2.Water vapor distillaiton 3.2.Different organic solvent by soxhlet

extraction
The device diagram is shown in the figure 2.

Figure 2 Water vapor distillation

A mixture of 30.0g star anise powder and 150 mL
distilled water was stirred and refluxed for 3 hours.
When mixture is nearly colorless, stop heating. After
distillating and cooling, the mass of the product was Figure 4 Extraction rates under different solvents
weighed and the extraction rate was calculated. In the soxhlet method, anhydrous ethanol, petroleum
ether and ethyl acetate were used to extract aniseed oil
under the same experimental conditions. As can be seen
2.2.3.Ultrasonic extraction from the figure 4, when anhydrous ethanol was used as
an organic solvent, the extraction rate of star anise oil
A mixture of 10.0g star anise powder and 200mL was the highest, with the highest value being 18.6%.
organic solvent(ethanol/petroleum ether/ethyl acetate)
was carried by ultrasonic cleaner under the temperature
of 40℃ for one hour. After distillating and cooling, the
mass of the product was weighed and the extraction rate
was calculated.

2
E3S Web of Conferences 213, 03035 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202021303035
ACIC 2020

3.3.Different volume fractions of ethanol by Compared with the three methods, it can be seen from
soxhlet extraction figure that the extraction yield of soxhlet extraction is
significantly higher than the other two methods.

4 Conclusions
The result of the different volume fractions of ethanol is
that the highest extraction rate is 99.7% ethanol. It can
be seen that the extraction yield are: ethanol > petroleum
ether > acetic acid ethyl ester. Extracting the star anise
oil from different methods shows that the extraction
yield are: soxhlet extraction method > ultrasonic
extraction method > steam distillation extraction method.
In summary, it can be seen by soxhlet extraction method
and the best solvent is 99.7% ethanol.
Figure 5 Extraction rates under different volume fractions of
ethanol
In order to observe whether the concentration of ethanol Acknowledgments
has any effect on the extraction rate of star anise oil,
This work was financially supported by the research
experiments were carried out at the volume fractions of
foundation of Qilu Institute of Technology.
ethanol of 85%, 90%, 95% and 99.7% (anhydrous
ethanol) respectively. As can be seen from the figure 5,
the highest extraction rate was 99.7% of anhydrous References
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Figure 7 Extraction rates under comparison of three methods

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ACIC 2020

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