Effect of biotransformation process on yield and quality of patchouli oil

Abstract

The patchouli (Pogostemon cablin) oil is well known for its warm, spicy, musky and sensuous scent. It is widely used in many industries like perfume, food, pharmaceutics, cosmetics, and cleaning products. In this study, the effect of microbial culture and incubation period on the recovery of the patchouli oil and its chemical composition were investigated. Three microbial cultures Aspergillus foetidus, Penicillium citrinum and Trichosporon asteroids were subjected to patchouli herbage for five different incubation period 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 days. The oil was extracted by steam distillation of dried-treated patchouli leaves and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The recoveries of patchouli oil increased with incubation period for all the treatments. The highest oil recovery and patchouli alcohol content were found to be 1.62% and 31.25%, respectively for the samples incubated with Trichosporon asteroids for 8 days. The quality of oil extracted from patchouli leaves treated with Trichosporon asteroides was better than the other treatments.