Extraction of black pepper essential oil for mosquito repellent lotion application

Black pepper was a functional plant with nutritional and medicinal benefits. Besides, D-Limonene, Terpinolene, 1R-α-Pinene, β-caryophyllene were the major bioactive compounds in black pepper applied for repelling mosquitoes. This study determined a combination of operating parameters that optimized the hydrodistillation of essential oil, including distillation time, distillation temperature, feed particle size, time to soak NaCl solution, the concentration of NaCl solution, and feed-solvent ratio on yield of essential oil extraction. The results obtained placed the optimum extraction condition at 5 hours of distillation time, at 180°C of distillation temperature, 0.25 mm of particle size, and 1:20 of feed-solvent ratio. With these parameters, the highest yield of the distillate essential oil process is 2.3%. GC-MS analysis resulted in the identification of black pepper components amount: β-caryophyllene, D-limonene, and β-pinene were the main compounds in black pepper essential oil. The lotion product with 2% of black pepper essential oil was reported that was the ability to repel mosquitoes effectively in 186 min. The development and use of black pepper essential oil effectively applied in repellent products provide an enormous potential for cosmeceutical.