Effect of Solvent on Recovery and Quality of Lemongrass (Cymbopogon flexuosus Stapf.) Oil

An experiment was carried out in laboratory to study the effect of solvent (acetone) on quantity and quality of essential oil of lemongrass (Cymbopogon flexuosus Stapf.) Material of four varities/genotype i.e. CKP-25, OD-19, OD58 and HL-2were procured form the research farm of CCS HAU, Hisar. Solvent (acetone) in various amounts viz., 3,6,9 and 12 ml was added in required amount of water thereby maintaining 0.2 per cent, 0.4 per cent, 0.6 per cent and 0.8 per cent level of acetone in water. The experiment was performed in three replicates for each variety. All distilled out essential oil was analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) fitted with flame ionization detector (FID) and equipped with capillary column thermo TR-WAX. The oil content increased from 0.57 per cent to 0.60 per cent in comparision to control (0.53%). Qualitative analysis of oil recovered by adding solvent (acetone) at various concentrations showed that desirable constituents i.e. citral-a, citral-b and total citral content decreased approximately by 2 per cent in comparison to control.