In the present study, the essential oil from the leaves of River Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh) was distilled by microwave applied in situ hydrodistillation (MWHD) and the properties obtained were compared with hydrodistillation (HD) techniques. The chemical composition of essential oil obtained by the microwave method was analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and GC–mass spectrometry (MS). The results showed that the essential oil from E. camaldulensis could successfully be distilled by using microwave irradiation power. Microwave power has been supplied from a cavity having a multimode microwave reactor 2455 MHz with a maximum power of 1000 W. Electromagnetic power distribution has been analyzed inside the cavity. The yield of essential oil increased with increasing microwave irradiation power. It was also found that the content of main compounds clearly varied according to methods applied. However, the yield of essential oil determined by MWHD was slightly lower than that of conventional HD method at conditions studied.

Atmospheric and higher pressure RF and microwave plasma sources have numerous applications including material processing and spectroscopy. More recently, advantages in using such discharges for combustion ignition are being investigated. A particularly simple and compact microwave discharge generating device is the quarter wave coaxial cavity resonator (QWCCR). This paper presents a new, compacted design of such a device. A simple approximate analysis of the quality factor, Q, which is a measure of the resonant electromagnetic potential step-up capability is given, and compared to experimentally measured quality factors showing reasonable agreement. Analytic results indicate that the foreshortened folded cavity quality factors are comparable to tapered coaxial cavity designs.