Isolation And Identification Of Essential Oils From Cymbopogan Citratus (Stapf) Dc Using Gc-Ms And Ft-Ir

Abstract

Citral is present in the oils of several plants, including lemon myrtle (90-98%), Litsea citrata (Blume.) (90%), Litsea cubeba (Louv.) (70-85%), lemongrass Cymbopogon Citratus (stapf) (65-85%), lemon tea-tree (70-80%), Ocimum gratissimum (L) (66.5%), Lindera citriodora (Siebold and Zucc) (about 65%), Calypranthes parriculata (about 62%), petit grain (36%), lemon verbena (30-35%), lemon ironbark (26%), lemon balm (11%), lime (6-9%), lemon (2-5%), and orange. Citral, present in lemon grass, is used as a flavor and for fortifying lemon oil.

This study involved isolation of essential oil from samples of lemon grass grown in Thika, Kiambu County, using hydro distillation and in comparison with correlation charts, functional groups present determined using FT-IR in the fingerprint region. The results obtained from hydro distillation indicated that the percentage yield of oil extracted is higher on dried leaf samples as compared to freshly cut leaves. The spectra obtained from GC-MS was used for relative quantification of various chemical constituents of the oil.

Key words: correlation charts, functional groups, FT-IR, GC-MS,