Fractionating of Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) Essential Oil by Vacuum Fractional Distillation

Abstract

Lemongrass essential oil has many compounds appropriate for application in foods, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical products. Of these, citral is a high-value compound of interest to industry. This work aims to evaluate the use of vacuum fractional distillation to separate lemongrass essential oil compounds, producing essential oil fractions containing high citral content. The effect of process parameters, namely vacuum pressure, type column, and energy input, on the fractionation time, content, and recovery of citral in the fractions, was investigated. The fractionation of lemongrass oils successfully provided five fractions, i.e., fraction 1 (F1), fraction 2 (F2), fraction 3 (F3), fraction 4 (F4), and fraction 5 (F5). GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry) spectra showed that the main compound contained in F1 and F2 fractions was β-myrcene (>70%). Meanwhile, F4 and F5 were the two main fractions for citral recovery. The optimal conditions of the fractional distillation system included a column height of 400 mm, power input of 165 W, and pressure of 15 mmHg. These conditions correspond to the highest total citral content of 95%, with a recovery of 80% at the F4 and F5 fractions. Therefore, fractional vacuum distillation may be an effective method to upgrade lemongrass essential oil.

Composition analysis and tyrosinase inhibitory activity of Cinnamomum cassia Presl leaf hydrosol and Cymbopogon citratus ( DC .) Stapf leaf hydrosol

“…The previously determined primary compositions of cinnamon essential oil and hydrosol (Ho et al, 2019;Huang et al, 2021;Michalczyk & Ostrowska, 2021;Yang, Liu, et al, 2021) and lemongrass hydrosol (Edris, 2009) were similar to the results observed in the present study. Conversely, cinnamyl acetate, aterpinenyl acetate, and a-terpineo have been reported in cinnamon hydrosol (Hamedi et al, 2017;Ho et al, 2019), while β-myrcene, αterpineol, limonene, and terpinene that were previously reported in lemongrass essential oil (Do et al, 2021;Kawhena et al, 2021) were not identified in the present study. The results of the comprehensive study could imply that the volatile chemical composition of hydrosols is dependent upon the raw material variety, collection time, extraction process, and determination method, and variations in these factors may have caused the differences observed in this study compared to those that were previously described.…”

Seasonal Variation, Fractional Isolation and Nanoencapsulation of Antioxidant Compounds of Indian Blackberry (Syzygium cumini)

“…Therefore, a high vacuum was preferred during the present study to reduce the temperature of vaporization of the volatile mixture. Studies on the fractional distillation of EO are rare although this process is very common in the petrochemical industry [ 8 ].…”

“…Two different processes were used to isolate fractions from the EO. In the first, high vacuum (−760 mmHg) fractional distillation was used to isolate three different constant boiling fractions along with the residue [ 8 ]. In the second, EO was slowly cooled to −50 °C using a lyophilizer (model BL-10B, Bioland, Shaanxi, China) to isolate two fractions (crystalline and non-crystalline fractions).…”

“…The fractional distillation process is used to purify or isolate compounds of interest from EO based on their boiling points [ 8 ]. Nanoencapsulation is the process of capturing substances in various coating materials at the nanoscale range.…”

Galleria mellonella as a novel eco-friendly in vivo approach for the assessment of the toxicity of medicinal plants

“…Cymbopogon citratus (DC.) Stapf (C. citratus) or lemongrass is an herbaceous plant of the Poaceae family growing in humid tropical areas which is mainly cultivated for its stems and leaves whose infusion gives a tea with strong lemony odor due to its high content of the aldehyde citral [33]. Muala et al [34].…”