Analytical Characterization of Industrial Essential Oils from Fruits and Leaves of C. aurantifolia Tan. and C. latifolia Swing.

The physicochemical indices, the composition of the volatile fraction, the enantiomeric ratios of some volatile components and the oxygen heterocyclic fraction of cold-pressed Key lime oils (types A and B), Persian lime oils, and petitgrain lime oils are reported. The volatile fraction of cold-pressed Persian lime oil is characterized by a higher content of limonene, gamma-terpinene and esters and a lower content of beta-pinene, sesquiterpene hydrocarbons, alcohols and aldehydes than cold-pressed Key lime oils. In petitgrain oils the oxygenated compounds are present at levels higher than the peel oils. Oxypeucedanin, probably due to the extraction technology, was almost absent in cold-pressed Key lime type A, while it is present in cold-pressed Key lime type B and in Persian lime oil. The enseparation was performed by direct enantioselective GC (esGC) and by multidimensional GC (MDGC) to obtain the most appropriate antiomeric separation of all the components analyzed. The enantiomeric excess of S-(-)-alpha-pinene, 1S,4R-(-)-camphene, S-(-)-beta-pinene, S-(-)-sabinene, and R-(-)-beta-phellandrene are lower in cold-pressed Persian lime oil than in Key lime oils.