Optimization Lemongrass Essential Oils by Microwaved Assisted Hydrodistillation in comparison to Traditional Hydrodistillation
Almira Yasmine, Tazkia Nafs Azzahra, Paramita Jaya Ratri*, Azis Adharis, Syifa Asatyas

Department Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Computer, Universitas Pertamina

Abstract

Lemongrass is one of the commodities that has the potential to be developed for both as a food ingredient and as an industrial raw material. As a raw material for industry, it can be processed into lemongrass oil or into citral. In order to increase the added value of this kitchen lemongrass plant, various efforts have been made, one of which is to extract it into essential oils. Lemongrass essential oil is currently one of the most potential export commodities, considering that the world demand for this oil is relatively high. Its demand from year to year also increases, while the producing countries are still very limited. For this reason, it is necessary to make various efforts to increase its production. Converting it to the lemongrass oil, its economic value shall increase. In this present research, the extraction time of clove oil using steam hydro distillation with and without microwave-assisted is reported. The distillation was conducted in various times, up to 2 hours. Furthermore, the lemongrass oil sample that obtained from extraction time was characterized using TLC, FTIR and GCMS.

Keywords: Essential oil, lemongrass, microwave-assisted hydrodistillation

Topic: Natural Products and Biological Chemistry