Abstract: The equipment and technics on the pilot experiment were studied in this paper for extracting the essential oil in Kaempferia galanga L. by enzymatic hydrolysis-hydro distillation. The designed equipment possesses four functions which are enzymatic hydrolysis, hydro distillation (HD), extraction and concentration. The contents we studied involved in adjusting parameters for the equipment, selecting the range of the four factors which affected the yield, optimizing the technics by orthogonal design, and testing and appreciating the product by GC-MS. The results were as follows: when the dosage of the liquefying enzyme 0.3%, solid-to-liquid ratio 20%, extracting time 4 h, and the ratio of petroleum ether to distillate 1:8, the viscosity of the HD system decreased greatly, and the Kaempferia galanga L. slurry running out of the extracting pot could be avoided. The distilling time decreased from 3.5 h to 2.0 h, and the yield of refined essential oil increased about 9%. Determination results of GC-MS showed that and the content of the main component in the oil increased about 15%.

Key words: essential oil in Kaempferia Galanga L., enzymatic hydrolysis, pilot experiment, orthogonal design, hydro distillation