Pollien, P; Ott, A; Fay, LB; Maignial, L; Chaintreau, A*

Flavour and Fragrance Journal [Flavour Fragrance J.], vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 413-423, Dec 1998

In a previous publication, a preparative apparatus was developed and optimized for simultaneous distillation-extraction (SDE) based on a theoretical model. In this paper, its performances were tested under various working conditions using a model mixture of flavourings. Separations were achieved at boiling water temperature as well as under mild conditions, which reduce artefact formation (room temperature, reduced pressure). High recoveries were obtained for batch experiments, but the boiler can also be fed from an external tank for continuous operations. This permits consideration of the preparative isolation of volatiles on a laboratory scale for subsequent fractionation and analysis, as well as industrial scale operations. Examples are given for real food flavours: one-step preparation and isolation of a reaction flavour, isolation of yoghurt and coffee flavourings, recovery of natural benzaldehyde from wastewater. In addition, the use of a food-grade solvent to achieve SDE isolation yields an `edible' extract which can be reincorporated into a food without elimination of the solvent.