Dr. Sharanagouda HiregoudarSHREELAXMI2020-05-202020-05-202016-06-30250http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810146176The rhizomes of sweet flag (Acorus calamus L.) possess antibacterial, antioxidant, bio pesticidal and antifungal properties. The present study was undertaken to develop a process technology for extraction of oil from sweet flag rhizome (Acorus calamus L.). The supercritical fluid extraction or supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) method was selected. The independent variables selected for extraction were temperature (45, 55 and 65 °C) and pressure levels (100, 150 and 200 bar). The maximum extraction yield and extraction efficiency of sweet flag rhizome oil were found to be 3.15 g/100 g and 90.08% at SC-CO2 temperature of 45 °C and pressure of 200 bar. The quality of extracted sweet flag rhizome oil was analysed using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and the β-asarone content in oil was found to be 26.80%. The desirability at optimum conditions was found to be 0.98. The extracted oil was further tested for its efficacy as antimicrobial, antifungal and insecticidal agent on pigeon pea and fig fruit. The extracted sweet flag rhizome oil was found to have strong antimicrobial and antifungal activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Mucor and Aspergillus. It is effective against pulse beetles at 70 μl/ml of oil concentration. Quality parameters viz., moisture content, carbohydrate, crude protein, dietary fibre, crude fat, and total ash of fig fruits coated with sweet flag rhizome oil were retained for 6 days compared with control. Less colour changes, decay loss, weight loss and even minimum microbial growth were observed in treatment T5 (1 mg of oil + chitosan solution) compared to other treatments of the sweet flag rhizome oil coated fig fruits.enThesis