ABSTRACT
Background: Tarragon [Artemisia dracunculus L.] has been utilized as a spice for many years
The essential oil of Tarragon can be used as a natural food preservative since the plant has antioxidant and antimicrobial properties
There has been a variety of methods to extract essential oils. Different methods of extraction might affect extraction rate, percentage and chemical composition amounts of the extracted essential oils
Objective: To find the best method of essential oil extraction, comparing different methods can be performed. In this research two methods of extraction have been compared
Methods: Essential oil of Tarragon was obtained by hydrodistillation and solvent free microwave extraction
Oils were analyzed and the components were identified using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry
Results: The major components of the oil extracted by hydrodistillation were estragol [29.05%] and limonene [11.87%]. Estragol [62.40%] and thymol [9.25%] were the major components isolated by microwave free solvent
Conclusion: Considering temperature and time of extraction, different extraction methods make noticeable changes in chemical composition of the oils