The investigation ofdifferent extraction techniques to extract gaharu oil

Gaharu or agarwood, scientifically known as aquilaria malaccensis, is one of the most
expensive woods in the world. Analysts have differentiated the quality of gaharu based
on its commercial grade, at which it ranges from A Super, A, B and C. Due to it rarity
and high demand, agarwood extract (gaharu oil) brings high prices. The price is around
RM 30 000 per litre for lower grade and superior grades could be priced up to
RM 60 000 per litre. It is anticipated that the prices of gaharu will remain high in the
future because of the high demand for gaharu material in Arabic countries, introduction
of new applications for gaharu materials in the cosmetic industry and the traditional
users ofgaharu in China, Japan and India for manufacturing joss-sticks and other.
Traditionally, gaharu oil is extracted by distilling the grinded gaharu sample in a copper
still. However, the process is less effective as the yield of oil is relatively small and it
acquires high temperature. This project is mainly about investigating the alternatives to
traditional hydro distillation to extract gaharu oil. Experiments are to be conducted to
study the effectiveness of ultrasonic technology, microwave technology, solvent
extraction and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) in terms of oil yield and other related
parameters. Proposed methodology is carried out to accomplish the aims ofthe project.
Three extraction methods were selected, namely as solvent extraction and ultrasonic
extraction, and steam distillation as control. The gaharu chips were initially grinded into
small particles and mixed with different type of solvent for extraction. For solvent
extraction, petroleum ether is not suitable used as solvent at specified temperature
(35°C) due to its dissimilarity in polarity as the chemical compounds for the raw material
obtained were mainly sesquiterpenes. For ultrasonic extraction, the highest oil yield
recovery is 0.1% at 100% power output of ultrasonic bath with temperature of 50±2°C.
Several modifications on the parameters experimented need to be done to produce higher
oil yield recovery.
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