Studies on the effect of different shade drying periods of lemongrass (Cymbopogon flexuosus Steud.) on recovery of essential oil

Abstract

Lemongrass (Cymbopogon flexuosus) is a perennial aromatic grass. The essential oil of lemongrass used in pharmaceutical and perfumery industries mostly. It is the most widely grown essential oil plants in tropics and subtropics of India. An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of different shade drying periods; five different samples of lemongrass (fresh, 6 h shade dried, 12 h shade dried, 18 h shade dried and 24 h shade dried) were analyzed. And to obtain the essential oil of lemongrass, hydro-distillation method by Clevenger apparatus were used. All the experimental data were analyzed statically using Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The effect different shade drying periods on oil recovery of lemongrass of was found to be significant at the level of significant (0.05) with CD 0.094.The oil recovery of lemongrass essential oil found increased with increases of shade drying period and maximum oil recovery (1.294%) obtained after 24 h shade drying period at 4 h of distillation period.