Corymbia citriodora hydrodistillation optimization: A biorefinery approach for extracting high value biocompounds

The hydrodistillation of essential oil from C. citriodora leaves produces a large volume of wastewater. This wastewater consists of the fractions of biocompounds soluble in hot water, extracted from leaves. Therefore, its exploration is part of the biorefinery strategies to minimize the use of fossil products towards sustainability using natural resources. Our research aims use the wastewater from C. citriodora leaves hydrodistillation industry recycling up to seven times to increase amount bioactive compounds and save water. The extracts with the highest concentration of biocompounds (7th extraction) were separated using functionalized silica and polymeric columns. The silica column was more efficient in recovering sugars (99 % total sugars, 72.5 % polyphenols), while the polymeric column was more efficient in recovering polyphenols (71 % total sugars, 82 % polyphenols).