Dutta et al.

in traditional medicine for treatement of nervous

Extraction procedure

and gastrointestinal disturbance, as the lemongrass

Fresh and dried leaves were cut into small pieces

oil has antispasmodic, analgesic, anti-inflammatory,

and hydro- distillation was carried out for extraction

anti-pyretic, diuretic and sedative properties (Santin

of oil by using Clevenger-type apparatus for a

et al., 2009). Studies on extracts from C. citratus leaves

total period of 4 hours as per method of Guenther

have demonstrated the presence of antioxidant, anti-

(1950). The extracted essential oils were dried using

microbial and anti-fungal activities (Oloyede, 2009;

anhydrous sodium sulfate and stored in sealed vials

Pereira et al., 2009).

at low temperature for future use.

The extraction and characterization of bioactive

molecules from medicinal plant is very essential

Oil yield

for the new drugs with high therapeutic value.

Lemongrass oil which was recovered by complete

Recently the demand for using medicine of natural

hydro distillation of lemongrass transferred to

origin is increasing due to awareness of potential

measuring cylinder, volume of the oil was recorded

harmful effect of synthetics additives (Reische, 1998).

and expressed as oil content (%) as follow

Cymbopogan citratus is a great interest due to its

commercially valuable essential oil and widely use

in food industries as well as in traditional medicine.

Therefore, the present study was conducted to

Gas Chromatography- mass spectroscopy

explore the oil content, chemical properties and

The essential oil extracted from the Cymbopogan

characterizing the lemongrass essential oil under

citratus leaves of different treatments, and, GC-MS

different drying condition.

analysis was carried out with the use of Varian GC-

Materials and Methods

MS 4000. The capillary column was of VF-5 (30 m

. 25 mm i.d., film thickness 0.25 m m). The column

The fresh leaves of C. citratus were collected from the

temperature for GC and GC/MS were 50-180°C at

farm of the Project Directorate for Farming Systems

a rate of 5°C/min, transfer line temperature 250°C,

Research, Modipuram, and Meerut, India during

carrier gas was helium with a flow rate of 1 ml/min,

January 2014. To study the effect of drying methods,

spilt ratio 1:20, ionization energy 70 eV. The 4 ppm

three methods of drying, (sun-drying, shade drying

stock solution was prepared by diluting in n-Hexane

with source of ventilation and oven drying at 45°C

and injected 1μml stock solution in the GCMS. The

for 7 hrs.) were investigated. In case of sun and

components of the essential oils were identified by

shade-drying, 2 kg fresh leaves were spread over

comparison of their mass spectra with those of a

2m 2 of area for 36 and 48 hours respectively.

computer library or with authentic compounds.

Table 1. Physiochemical Properties of Lemongrass oil at different drying treatments.

Saponification value (mg

Iodine value

Acid Value

Treatments

Essential oil (%)

KOH/g)

(gI ₂ /100g)

(mgKOH/g)

Fresh Leaves

0.77±0.41

145.85±0.11

117.11±0.19

4.29±0.24

Sundry Leaves

2.50±0.09

142.59±0.21

115.80±0.12

4.57±0.42

Shade dry Leaves

2.65±0.05

143.61±0.28

114.31±0.14

4.14±0.18

Oven dry Leaves

3.06±0.21

144.60±0.24

116.19±0.12

4.46±0.16

904