Development of Vacuum Hydrodistillation Technology in Citronella Oil Distillation (Cymbopogonnardus) as an Effort to Improve The Economy of the People of Blang Poroh Village, Lhokseumawe

Abstract

Fragrant lemongrass oil is one of the products of non-timber forest products (HHBK) and is commercially obtained from the distillation of the leaves of the citronella plant (Cymbopogonnardus). Fragrant lemongrass leaves are one of the raw materials to obtain vegetable oil in the form of essential oils. Essential oils are the main components consisting of geraniol and citronellal arrangements. The essential oil extract process can be done by various methods, one of which is the Vacuum Distillation method. The Vacuum Distillation Method is carried out using a vacuum pump as a pressure guard and the boiling point of the distillation process does not exceed the temperature of the boiling point of water, which is 1000C, so that the oil produced is maintained purity. The Vacuum Hydrodistillation Process of citronella is carried out for 3, 5, and 7 hours with each treatment using raw materials of random and whole cut sizes. The essential oil products produced are analyzed in the form of yield, density, refractive index and oil composition analysis with GC-MS. The best essential oil results from citronella were obtained under operating conditions with random cut samples and a distillation time of 5 hours. Where the yield produced is 0.17% with a refractive index of 1.41570 and a density of 0.92735 gr / ml.