Chemistry and Technology of Aromatic Plants

Code

Course teacher

Associate teachers

Status of the course

Course objectives

Acquisition of basic knowledge on the chemistry and technology of aromatic plants, knowledge of the structures of organic compounds typical for the essential oils, their division and useful properties, knowledge on the biosynthesis of essential oils and methods of their isolation and identification of the oil components.

Course enrolment requirements and entry competences required for the course

Learning outcomes expected at the level of the course (4 to 10 learning outcomes)

After passing the course, students will be able to:
- describe the basic concepts, essential oils, aromatic plants processing procedures, analyses of isolates obtained and typical use of essential oils
- illustrate the ways of smell perception, the biosynthesis of terpenes and other compounds of essential oils, the basic division of terpenes
- demonstrate basic procedures in the processing of aromatic plants, simple method for isolation of essential oils and aromatic extracts preparation
- determine the appropriate method of analysis of derived isolates (basic physical and chemical values, the application of chromatographic and spectroscopic methods)
- propose suitable procedures for the processing of aromatic plants, taking into account the fundamental principles of distillation and extraction procedures, the analysis of obtained isolates considering the possibility of artefacts formation as well as structural / biosynthetic relationship between the isolated compounds
- choose the correct chemical approach for solving problems in the field of chemistry and technology of aromatic plants, starting from the acquired knowledge from organic chemistry and biochemistry

Course content broken down in detail by weekly class schedule (syllabus)

Introduction to aromatic plants and essential oils - definition, historical development of isolation and research of the essential oils. (3 hours); Natural, natural identical and synthetic essential oils; chemical structures of molecules and smell; activating receptors of smell: ion channels and G-proteins; essential oils in plants, plant formations for storage of the essential oils, chemotaxonomy and chemotypes of essential oils (3 hours).
Chemical composition of the essential oils: terpenes, isoprene rule, division, cyclic and acyclic structures of mono- and sesquiterpenes; phenylpropanoic derivatives and other compounds in the essential oils (3 hours); Chirality and structures of terpenes; glycosidically bound volatile compounds; the basic structure of glycones and aglycones of the glycosides of volatile compounds; Biogenesis of 3-IPP via mevalonic acid; biogenesis 3-IPP over deoxyxylulose phosphate (DXP) (3 hours); Biogenetic isoprene rule - the precursors of terpenes (GPP, FPP, GGPP); biogenesis semiterpenes, acyclic and cyclic mono-and sesquiterpenes. (3 hours)
Processing of aromatic plants: drying and storage; general overview of the methods of isolation and concentration of the essential oils; rate of distillation – hydrodiffusion; hydrolysis and decomposition of labile components of essential oils (3 hours); Hydrodistillation, water-vapour and steam distillation in the laboratory and in industry; comparison of water, water-steam and steam distillation (3 hours); Extraction with organic solvents, extraction with cold and hot fat; overview of the types of the obtained aromatic extracts; extraction with sub-and supercritical fluids (CO2, H2O); microwave extraction; simultaneous distillation-extraction (3 hours); Comparison of conventional and new extraction techniques; fractionation of the essential oils; basic physical and chemical values of the essential oils; chromatographic techniques in the analysis of essential oil (3 hours)
TLC and GC analysis of the essential oil, detectors (FID and MS), types of columns, sample preparation for the analysis of essential oil, retention time and the index, an overlap of peaks and fractionation of essential oils (pre-treatment) (3 hours); Modern chromatographic techniques in the analysis of essential oils: chiral GC, HSGC, MDGC, 2DGC; GC-MS; MS (SIM SCAN technique) - identification of terpenes and phenylpropane derivatives via MS (6 hours)
Overview of common essential oils - chemical composition and application (6 hours); the use of essential oils; mechanism of antibacterial and antioxidant activity; the structure of biologically active compounds of essential oils; undesirable effects of the essential oils (3 hours)

Format of instruction:

Student responsibilities

Students are required to attend classes (lectures and seminars) and actively participate in the teaching process, which will be evaluated in the final assessment by the weight coefficient of 5%.

Optional literature (at the time of submission of study programme proposal)

R. P. Adams, Identification of essential oils by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, Allured Publishing Corporation, 2007
E. Guenther, The Essential Oils, vol. II-VI, van Nostrand Co, Princeton, 1964.

Quality assurance methods that ensure the acquisition of exit competences

Monitoring of quality assurance will be performed at three levels:
(1) University; (2) Faculty Level by Quality Control Committee; (3) Academic Level.

Other (as the proposer wishes to add)