Method for the Production of Natural Vanilla Extracts using a Conventional Microwave Oven

A method to obtain vanilla extracts with 1 fold of concentration from cured vanilla pods using a conventional microwaves oven is proposed. With this method it was possible to obtain vanilla extracts containing 0.20% of vanillin, in only three days. This value is higher than that established as minimum value by international norms (0.11%) for extracts of vanilla. In this study, irradiation time, no-irradiation time, power and volume of extractant were evaluated. The temperature of the extractant (64% ethanol) at different irradiation times and powers with the aim of avoiding evaporation of the solvent was evaluated. The optimum conditions were: 450 W of power and three cycles of 10s of irradiation and 60 s of no-irradiation twice daily for 3 days. The extraction efficiency increased 90% and the extraction time decreased 66% with respect to the conventional manual method.