Lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus): A plant for future medicinal edible oil

Abstract

The proximate composition of the lemon grass and oil content were studied for the various physico-chemical properties such as – oil content, ash, moisture, acid value, saponification value, iodine value,free fatty acid (FFA), specific gravity, mean molecular mass (MMM), refractive index (RI) as per standard procedure. The fatty acid determination was done by using Gas liquid Chromatography (GC). The dry matter, crude protein, crude fibre, ether extract and ash contents of the grass were 68.04%, 10.28, 12.21, 16.07% and 9.76% respectively. The oil was found to be rich in linoleic acid (30.72%), oleic acid (28.17%), myristic acid (4.33%) as well as lauric acid (1.87%) compared to that of palm oil. The ratio of the oil to the oven dried grass was 1:1.2. The saponification value was 205.66 while the refractive index was 1.453. The values for the specific gravity, free fatty acid, total acid and ester value were 0.95, 12.86, 49.64 and 156.02 respectively. The results revealed the potential of lemon grass oil for future medicinal and nutritional values.