The identity and the absolute quantity (mg/LJ, of the major water-soluble
aroma components in the waste water of distillation of 7 aromatic plants were
investigated. These plants included sweet basil, spearmint, peppermint, sour orange
petitgrain, lemongrass, eucalyptus, and clove essential oils. The major water-soluble
aroma components being quantified were alcohols, ketones, aldehydes and epoxides.
Eugenol from clove oil was found to be the most highly partitioned component into the
water phase among all investigated components (854 mg/LJ, followed by c- carvone
"from spearmint oil (242 mg/LJ then linalool from both sweet basil (171 mg/L) and
petitgrain oil (128 mg/L). The investigation indicated that the solubility of certain
aroma component in distillation waste water depends on two main factors: first, the
partition coefficient of the aroma component between the parent oil phase and water,
which in turn depends on the chemical structure of the aroma component and its
interaction with water on one hand and with the oil phase on the other hand. Second,
the abundance of aroma component present in the parent oil.