Introduction:

Schinus molle L. (Anacardiaceae), known as pirul tree in Mexico, is a species rich in essential oil in leaves and fruits.

Objective:

To characterize the phytochemical profile of essential oil obtained from S. molle leaves using two distillation systems and different extraction times.

Materials and methods:

An intermediate scale Rayleigh batch distiller was used to extract essential oil from S. molle leaves collected in the central region of Mexico. The product obtained at different times was characterized by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The phytochemical profile was compared with the extract obtained in the Clevenger apparatus.

Results and discussion:

The Rayleigh distiller had a higher extraction capacity, but the yield was 0.6 % lower (P = 0.05) than with the Clevenger apparatus at 120 min. A total of 37 compounds were found, of which 31 were present in the extract from the Rayleigh distiller, five were compounds of low concentration and one, classified as oxygenated sesquiterpene, had a high concentration (10.25 %) of essential oil. With longer extraction time, sesquiterpenes increased and oxygenated sesquiterpenes decreased. The essential oil had higher presence of hydrogenated monoterpenes, mainly α-phellandrene (21.20-28.57 %), limonene + β-phellandrene (19.07-27.78 %), camphene (3.32-9.93 %), α-pinene (5.74-8.56 %), β-mircene (2.95-6.91 %) and β-pinene (1.31-3.55 %).

Conclusions:

The characterization of the extraction procedure and chemical profile of essential oil of S. molle can favor the exploitation of this species.