Malaysian Journal of Analytical Sciences Vol 19 No 1 (2015): 71 – 76

 

 

 

OPTIMAL EXTRACTION AND EVALUATION ON THE OIL CONTENT OF CITRONELLA OIL EXTRACTED FROM CYMBOPOGON NARDUS

 

(Pengekstrakan Optimum Dan Penilaian Kandungan Minyak Sitronela Daripada Cymbopogon Nardus)

 

Daniel Chong Jun Weng¹, Jalifah Latip¹*, Siti Aishah Hasbullah¹, Harjono Sastrohamidjojo²

 

¹School of Chemical Science & Food Technology,

Faculty of Science and Technology,

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

²Department of Chemistry,

Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

 

*Corresponding author: jali@ukm.my

 

 

Abstract

An investigation on the extraction of citronella oil from Cymbopogon nardus (C. nardus) using a custom made medium scale steam distillation apparatus has been conducted. The Clevenger apparatus was used to generate a continuous flow of the hydrosol, creating an efficient distillation system. In the case for C. nardus leave samples orientation; the sleeping/standing and close/loose packing in steam distillator was found to have significant effects on the yield of extraction. The 3.5 hours distillation process produced an extraction yield of 0.64% in sleeping position of the leaves as compared to the standing position (0.43%), while the loose packing (0.70%) has almost two fold of yield percentage as compared to the close-packing (0.40%) of the leaves. Therefore, the steam distillation of C. nardus leaves using a custom made medium scale steam distillation apparatus was found to be most effective in the combination of sleeping position with a loose packing. Furthermore, the age of C. nardus leaves also affect the physical and chemical quality of the citronella oil extracted. The younger leaves produced citronella oil that consists mainly of citronellal, citronellol and geraniol while the older leaves contained a high composition of citral.

 

Keywords: steam distillation, citronella oil, cymbopogon nardus, extraction, essential oil

 

Abstrak

Penyiasatan terhadap pengekstrakan minyak sitronela daripada C. nardus telah dilakukan dengan menggunakan radas penyulingan stim skala sederhana yang khas disediakan. Alat radas Clevenger yang digunakan dapat menghasilkan aliran kitaran hidrosol berterusan yang meningkatkan kecekapan proses pengekstrakan minyak. Didapati orientasi (tidur/menegak) dan kepadatan (rapat/longgar) daun C. nardus dalam proses pengekstrakan memberi kesan ketara kepada hasil pengekstrakan minyak. Penyulingan stim yang dilakukan selama 3 jam memberikan hasil  pengekstrakan 0.64% bagi daun dalam kedudukan tidur berbanding dengan 0.43% bagi daun dalam kedudukan menegak; pengekstrakan sebanyak 0.70% didapati bagi daun dalam kepadatan longgar berbanding dengan 0.40% bagi daun dalam kepadatan rapat. Oleh itu, hasil pengekstrakan minyak C. nardus paling berkesan adalah gabungan kedudukan daun dalam keadaan tidur dan kepadatan daun yang longgar. Tambahan pula, usia daun C. nardus didapati dapat memberikan kualiti fizikal dan kimia yang berbeza kepada minyak sitronela yang diekstrak. Daun muda memberikan sebatian utama iaitu sitronelal, sitronelol dan geraniol manakala daun yang lebih matang memberikan komposisi sitral yang tinggi.

Kata Kunci: penyulingan stim, minyak sitronela, cymbopogon nardus, pengekstrakan, minyak pati

 

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