Process for producing purified essential oil

Abstract

It is provided a process for producing a purified essential oil excellent in safety and quality with high productivity from an essential oil comprising a harmful contaminant such as an agricultural chemical by simply and smoothly removing the contaminant with high removal rate without causing poor balance of flavor which the essential oil originally has, decrease of flavor strength and the like. It relates to a process for producing a purified essential oil by treating an essential oil comprising a contaminant with an active carbon to remove the contaminant and the removal rate of the contaminant is further improved by using an active carbon activated with a chemical, particularly an active carbon activated with zinc chloride, in the treatment, or by conducting the treatment at a low temperature of room temperature or lower, particularly at −25° C. to 5° C.

1 . A process for producing a purified essential oil, wherein an essential oil comprising a contaminant is treated with an active carbon to remove the contaminant. 
     
     
         2 . The process for producing a purified essential oil according to  claim 1 , wherein the contaminant is a residual agricultural chemical. 
     
     
         3 . The process for producing a purified essential oil according to  claim 2 , wherein the agricultural chemical is one kind or two or more kinds selected from ortho-phenyl phenol, chloroneb, simazine, carbaryl, chlorpyrifos, imazalil, thiabendazole and diphenyl. 
     
     
         4 . The process for producing a purified essential oil according to  claim 1 , wherein the essential oil is one kind or a mixture of two or more kinds selected from citrus oil, spice oil and herb oil 
     
     
         5 . The process for producing a purified essential oil according to  claim 4 , wherein the citrus oil is one kind or a mixture of two or more kinds selected from lemon oil, sweet orange oil, bitter orange oil, lime oil, grapefruit oil, bergamot oil, mandarin oil, Yuzu oil (Citrus junos oil) and Sudachi oil (Citrus sudachi oil). 
     
     
         6 . The process for producing a purified essential oil according to  claim 4 , wherein the spice oil is one kind or a mixture of two or more kinds selected from allspice, anise oil, star anise oil, bitter almond oil, blackcurrant oil, cinnamon oil, clove oil, ginger oil, mustard oil and pepper oil. 
     
     
         7 . The process for producing a purified essential oil according to  claim 4 , wherein the herb oil is one kind or a mixture of two or more kinds selected from sweet basil oil, celery oil, clary sage oil, eucalyptus oil, peppermint oil, mint oil and spearmint oil. 
     
     
         8 . The process for producing a purified essential oil according to  claim 1 , wherein the essential oil is treated with the active carbon at a temperature of from −30° C. to 5° C. 
     
     
         9 . The process for producing a purified essential oil according to  claim 1 , wherein the active carbon is an activated active carbon. 
     
     
         10 . The process for producing a purified essential oil according to  claim 9 , wherein the activated active carbon is an active carbon activated with a chemical. 
     
     
         11 . The process for producing a purified essential oil according to  claim 10 , wherein the chemical is zinc chloride. 
     
     
         12 . A purified essential oil obtained by the production process according to  claim 1 . 
     
     
         13 . A flavor composition comprising the purified essential oil according to  claim 12 . 
     
     
         14 . A food or drink comprising the purified essential oil according to  claim 12  and/or the flavor composition according to  claim 13 . 
     
     
         15 . An oral care product comprising the purified essential oil according to  claim 12  and/or the flavor composition according to  claim 13 .