Recovery of valuable perfumery compounds from a geranium steam distillation condensate using polymeric adsorbents

Geranium steam-distillation condensate water contains a number of valuable perfumery components. This water was characterized and found to contain geraniol, nerol, citronellol, linalool, isomenthone and menthone. Recovery of these components from the condensate water by adsorption on polymeric adsorbents is described. Single solute and multisolute adsorption equilibria for a variety of polymeric adsorbents are reported. A rational explanation is given for the difference in single solute and multisolute equilibria. A column breakthrough study showed that the components can be readily recovered by adsorption.