Challenges in Utilizing Lime Essential Oil in Industries

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2.1.2 Limitations of lime essential oil
Lime essential oil (EO) is widely used in large industrial application for its energizing, fresh and cheerful aroma due to its functional compounds (Burt, 2004). Due to their aromatic properties and antimicrobial activities, they are of great interest as food additives for pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food industries (Simas et al., 2017). However, despite the potential applications of lime essential oil as functional components in foods and beverages, the utilization of lime essential oils is often limited because of their relatively low water solubility (Chang et al., 2012). This can be explained by the reason that essential oil are generally the mixtures of hundreds of lipophilic aroma compounds including lipophilic terpenoids, phenylpropanoids and short-chain aliphatic hydrocarbon derivatives, making it to be immiscible when added to water (Kubeczka, 1979). …show more content…

Furthermore, terpenes which is the most characteristic constituents of lime essential oil tends to be both volatile and thermolabile and may be easily oxidized or hydrolysed under different conditions such as during production or unstable storage conditions (Scott, 2005). For example, the major flavor components of lime oil such as citral which is a naturally occurring aliphatic aldehyde of the terpene series and limonene which is classified as cyclic terpenes can easily undergo chemical degradation which will lead to the loss of flavor and the formation of undesirable off-flavours (Djordjevic et al.,

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