Bima Journal of Science and Technology, Vol.
4(2) Dec, 2020 ISSN: 2536-6041
EXTRACTION OF OIL AND FORMULATION OF PERFUME FROM LEMONGRASS
1*
MUSTAPHA BALA MOHAMMED, 1ABDULLAHI ZAHARADDEEN YAMUSA AND
1
IBRAHIM SANI MAMMAN
Department of Chemistry, Federal College of Education, Zaria
ABSTRACT
Lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) essential oil is used in many aspects, such as flavouring
industries, medicinal material and food technology. Perfume is a fragrant liquid made from an
extract that has been distilled in alcohol and water. The research aimed at perfume production.
Extraction of oil from the plant material; formulation of perfume from the extract and the
infrared spectroscopy of the essential oil were conducted. Lemon grass leaves, n-Hexane and
ethanol are the major materials and reagents used in the extraction process.Essential oil sample
was deposited on HATR plates with ZnSe and the FTIR recorded in the range of 4000 – 650 cm-1
by accumulating 64 scans per spectrum with a resolution of 4cm-1. 1.9g (1.3%) and 1.01g (0.67%)
of the essential oil were extracted from 150g each of the plant material using solvent extraction
and steam distillation methods respectively. The result showed that, solvent extraction method
gave a high yield of the oil extracted. FT-IR of the extracted oil sample showed the presence of –
OH (33399.7cm-1), ˃C=O (1651.2cm-1), -CH3 (1453.7cm-1), -CH (2929.7cm-1), and ˃C=C˂
(1420.1cm-1). More researches should be carried out on extraction of essential oil using various
plant materials due its simple operation method.
Keywords: Lemon grass, Essential oil, Perfume, Solvent extraction and Steam distillation.
INTRODUCTION their own odour by using perfume, which
emulates nature's pleasant smells (Aftab et
Between 2010 and 2015, Nigeria Imported al., 2005). Many ordinary and man-made
essential oils and perfumes of up to two materials have been used to make perfume
hundred and forty five billion, six hundred to apply to the skin and clothing, to put in
million naira (Obiora, Jonah, Ikenna and cleaners and cosmetics, or to scent the air.
Christian, 2019). Perfume is one of the Because of differences in body chemistry,
commodities that can be produced locally temperature, and odours, no perfume odours
using commonly available resources, such as exactly the same on any two different people
lemon grass leaves. But as a result of (Adefemi and Awokunmi, 2010). Many
politics of the 21st century, it is now largely ancient perfumes were made by extracting
imported. Lemon grass (Cymbopogon natural oils from plants through burning and
citratus) essential oil is used in many steaming. Today, most perfumes are used to
aspects, such as flavouring industries, odor bar soaps (Omotade and Oloyede,
medicinal material and food technology. 2009).
Perfume is an aromatic liquid made from an
extract that has been distilled in alcohol and Lemongrass which is also called C. citratus
water. Since the beginning of recorded belongs to the Poaceae family which counts
history, humans have attempted to improve more than 635genera and 9000 species. This
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herb plant is commonly distributed around agents that help plant cells to crack down
the world. There are more than 140 and release their contents (Chavan,
cultivated species only for the Cymbopogon, Lokhande and Rajput, 2005). There are
52 of them grow in Africa, 45 in India, 6 in various methods used to extract essential oil
Australia, 6 in South America, 4 in Europe from lemon grass leaves, such as Steam
(only in Montenegro), 2 in North America, Distillation and Solvent Extraction.
and the others in South Asia. Cymbopogon
exuosus and Cymbopogon citratus stand for The main aim of this research is to make
the two major species greatly cultivated for perfume from lemon grass with these
their essential oils in different regions of the objectives, extraction of oil from the plant
world. C. citratus is known by numerous material; formulation of perfume from the
international common names, such as West extract and infrared spectroscopy of the
Indian lemon grass or lemon grass (English), extracted essential oil. The significance of
citronelle or verveine des indes (French), this research work focuses on the production
hierba limon or zacate de limón (Spanish), of perfumes from natural sources as against
xiang mao (Chinese), capimcidrao or capim- artificial chemicals thereby reducing any
santo (Portuguese), and locally there are side effect resulting from synthetic
identi ed more than 28 native names from chemicals. The success of this work will
different countries of the world. The genus stimulate the expansion of the perfume
Cymbopogon has been reviewed industry locally because of available, cheap
comprehensively in several articles (Avoseh, raw materials. More jobs will be created by
Oyedeji, Rungqu, Nkeh-Chungag, and those that will be engage in
Oyedeji, 2015; Haque, Ramadevi and Naebe, planting/cultivation of the plant as well as
2018). establishing small size extraction plants.
There will be decline on the resources spent
Most essential oils are extracted from plant on importation of lemon grass fragrance by
materials. Extractions are used to obtain a end users (Omotade and Oloyede, 2009).
plant’s vigorous botanical constituents that
function as its “life force” (Adnan et al. MATERIALS AND METHODS
2010). They are essentially the liquefied
Steam Distillation
version of a plant, and they effectively allow
its beneficial compounds to reach the blood The system for steam distillation of lemon
stream more rapidly than they would by grass oil consists of two distillation stills,
simply consuming the plant. Herbal extract condenser and collector (Gupta, Sunita and
is produced when a botanical material is Saharan, 2009). The distillation still has a
introduced to a solvent in which some of the capacity to hold 1-1.5 kg of plant material
plant material components dissolve. per consignment. Steam is produced by
Eventually, the solvent becomes infused heating water in first still. Steam thus
with the botanical materials that it has pulled produced is passed in the second still. 150g
from the source plant, and this is what is of lemon grass (chopped or unchopped) is
referred to as the “extract.” The solution that filled in second still and its lid is fitted
leftovers at the end of the process can be firmly, so that oil and vapor do not leak out.
liquid or the liquid can be removed to turn Steam is injected in the second still with the
the remnants of the botanical into a solid. help of linking tube from the first still. The
The solvents can act as preservatives or as upcoming steam carries away the oil from
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the plant material i.e. lemon grass and both collected into two separate 250mL beaker
oil as well as steam pass to the condenser and were placed in a water bath at 78oC.
through vapor line, where these vapors are This was done to remove the Ethanol
condensed; oil and water are removed in the leaving only the natural essential oil. The
collector. Oil being lighter floats on top of yield of oil was determined by weighing the
the water. The mixture of oil and water was extract on an electronic weighing balance.
divided in the separating funnel. The The difference between the final weight of
separating funnel is than kept for 24 hours the beaker with extract and the initial weight
residence time, after which water was of the empty beaker gave the weight of
detached and discarded from bottom essential oil (Dey, Mohapatra and Misra,
whereas the oil was collected in a separate 2005; Chantal, Prachakoli and
beaker. The oil thus obtained is lemon grass Ruangviriyachai, 2012). 10mL of lemon
oil having 80-85% critical content and some grass essential oil extract were measured and
unstable terpenes (Chavan, Lokhande and placed in a beaker containing 5mL of
Rajput, 2005; Gupta, Sunita and Saharan, alcohol. 5mL of the fixatives were added to
2009). the mixture to improve the longevity of the
perfume. The solution was shaken and
Solvent Extraction poured into a bottle (Dey, Mohapatra and
Misra, 2005).
60g of the dry sample of lemongrass were
weighed from the sliced lemongrass sample Carry 630 FTIR of the Agilent Technologies
and placed in a 500mL clean flat bottom was used to determine the functional groups
flask. 300mL of n-hexane solvent were present in the essential oil. Essential oil
poured into the 500mL flask and stopped. sample was deposited on HATR plates with
The flask and content were allowed to stand ZnSe and the FTIR recorded in the range of
for 72hrs; this was done to extract all the oil 4000 – 650 cm-1 by accumulating 64 scans
content in the lemongrass and for complete per spectrum with a resolution of 4cm-1.
extraction. After which the extract was Data were then processed using the IR
decanted into another 500mL beaker. solution software.
200mL of ethanol were added to extract the
essential oil since essential oil is soluble in RESULTS
Ethanol. The mixture was then transferred to
500mL separating funnel and separated by a Quality and quantity of essential oil largely
process called liquid-liquid separation depends on the extraction procedures. In this
process. The content of the separating funnel research, the following result was obtained
was allowed to come to equilibrium, which in the extraction of oil and formulation of
separated into two layers (depending on the perfume from lemongrass leave. The
their different density). The lower Ethanol amount of oil extracted from various
extract and the upper Hexane layer were methods in shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Amount of Oil Extracted
S/N Method Amount of Amount of Oil Percentage
Leaves (g) Extracted (g) (%)
1. Solvent extraction 150 1.90 1.30
2. Steam distillation 150 1.01 0.67
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The amount of essential oils obtained by of oil. The essential oil extraction the oil
solvent extraction method was 1.9 g of produced was pale yellow, with pungent
essential oil per 150g of dry lemongrass odour and has a cold nature. Because of its
sample. This gave about 1.30% yield of high volatility, it was stored in a well filled
essential oil per 150g of dry lemongrass. air-tight container confined from light in
The temperature used was 78oC i.e. the cool place (Basavaraja et al., 2011). The
boiling point of ethanol. The volume of oil essential oil is insoluble in water, miscible in
was measured at every 3hr interval to alcohol and other organic solvents. This
determine the oil yield at varying time. As indicates that it’s made up of organic
time lapses, the ethanol solvent decreases, compounds (Omotade and Oloyede, 2009).
thereby leaving the essential oil in the
mixture (Chavan, Lokhande and Rajput, From the Fourier-transform infrared
2005). spectroscopy of the essential oil, absorption
bands at 3339.7, 1651.2, 1453.7, 2924.3 and
The result obtained from steam distillation 1043.7 cm-1 were observed as shown in
process was 1.01g weight of 150g of Figure 1.
lemongrass sample giving up to 0.67% yield
Table 2: Result from Fourier Transform Infrared Analysis of the Oil
S/N Wave number Functional Group S/N Wave number Functional Group
(cm-1) (cm-1)
1 33399.7 -OH 6 1420.1 >C=C˂
2 2974.4 -CH3 7 1326.9 -OH (from 1o or 2o)
3 2929.7 -C-H (methyne 8 1088.4 C-C
stretching)
4 1651.2 >C=O 9 969.1 C-H
5 1453.7 -CH3 (asymmetric) 10 1043.7 C-C stretching
Figure 1: FTIR Spectrum of Essential Oil Lemon Grass Leaves
DISCUSSION extraction of the essential oil from grass is
solvent extraction method because it gave
From the experiment carried out it was more quantity of the oil than the other
observed that the best method used in the methods. Omotade and Oloyede, (2009)
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extracted 2.4 and 1.4g of essential oil from alcohol, the oil particles are released. The
150g of lemon grass leaves by solvent abovementioned chemicals used in the
extraction and steam distillation methods process then remain in the oil and the oil is
respectively. Dey, Mohapatra and Misra, used in perfumes by the perfume industry or
(2005) extracted 1.0, 1.5 and 2.2g of for aromatherapy purposes. Solvent
essential oil from 200g of lemon grass extraction encompasses the following
leaves by steam distillation, water methods; Hypercritical CO2 (Carbon
distillation and solvent extraction methods dioxide), Maceration, Effleurage (Chanthal,
respectively. Adefemi and Awokunmi, Prachakoli and Ruangviriyachai, 2012).
(2010) extracted 0.62 and 1.27g of essential
oil from 120g of dry lemon grass leaves by From Table 2, the IR analysis carried out on
steam distillation and solvent extraction lemon grass essential oil, a broad absorption
methods respectively. Steam distillation band observed at 3339.7 cm-1 was due to the
method yielded less amount of oil compared presence of -OH functional group in the
to the solvent extraction method, this is essential oil, this was confirmed by the
because most volatile components of the oil emergence of 1336.9cm-1 that -OH from
gets missing during the heating process (Dey, either primary or secondary alkanol is
Mohapatra and Misra, 2005; Agarwal and present in the oil. Omotade and Oloyede,
Manish, 2011). Steam Distillation is the (2009) discovered the occurrence of –OH
most popular method used to extract and functional group in essential oil extracted
separate essential oils from plants for use in from lemon grass leaves. At 1651.2cm-1, it
natural products. This happens when the was confirmed that carbonyl group is
steam vaporizes the plant material’s volatile present in the essential oil confirming the
compounds, which finally go through a occurrence of either alkanals or aldehydes.
condensation and collection process Dey et al., (2009) discovered the occurrence
(Chanthal, Prachakoli, and Ruangviriyachai of –CH (methyne stretching bond), at
2012). 2924.3cm-1 from IR analysis of an essential
oil extracted from lemon grass leaves.
Solvent extraction method employs food Chanthal, Prachakoli, and Ruangviriyachai,
grade solvents like hexane and ethanol to (2012) also found an aldehyde compound (-
separate essential oils from plant material. It CHO) in the lemongrass oil in extraction
is best suited for plant materials that yield process. At 1453.7cm-1 methyl (asymmetric)
low amounts of essential oil, that are largely bend was observed which proved long chain
resinous, or that are delicate aromatics hydrocarbon linkage; this was confirmed at
unable to withstand the pressure and distress 1043.7 cm-1 which is C-C stretching to
of steam distillation. This method also confirm the long chain.
produces a better fragrance than any type of
distillation method. Through this process, CONCLUSION AND
the non-volatile plant material such as waxes RECOMMENDATION
and pigments, are also extracted and
sometimes removed through other processes. The amount of oil from solvent extraction
Once the plant material has been treated method was found to be higher than that
with the solvent, it produces a waxy obtained from steam distillation method.
aromatic compound called a "concrete." Kinetic studies of steam distillation process
When this concrete substance is mixed with showed that, oil is not instantly extracted if
stem is injected to the dry lemon grass, but
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wetting or swelling of the grass inside the Fertilizer Factory Effluent, Nature
distillation still is needed for initial 10-15 Environment and Pollution
minutes for diffusion and osmosis of oil Technology, 4(4): 529-531.
inside the grass. IR analysis of the lemon Agarwal, A. and Manish, S. (2011).
grass leaves showed the presence of –OH Assessment of Pollution by
functional group and the presence of some Lemongrass Essential Oil Extraction
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components, such as terpenes. India, Advances in Applied Science
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The following recommendations were made, Avoseh, O., Oyedeji, O., Rungqu, P., Nkeh-
Politics should always play a positive Chungag, B. and Oyedeji, A. (2015).
game towards educational policies, Cymbopogon Species;
especially the entrepreneurship Ethnopharmacology, Phytochemistry
education in order to reduce the rate of and the Pharmacological Importance.
perfume importation and improve the Molecules, 20(5): 7438-7453.
production of perfume locally using Basavaraja, S., Hiremath, S. M., Murthy, K.
naturally available resources. N. S., Chandrashekarappa, K. N.,
More researches should be carried out on Anil N. P. and Puttiah, E. T. (2011).
extraction of essential oil using various Analysis of Lemongrass Plant
plant materials due its simple operation Hosahalli Tank in Shimoga District,
method. Karnataka, India, Global Journal of
More perfume production companies Science Frontier, Research, 1(3): 31-
should be provided in order to create 34.
more job opportunities in developing Chavan, R. P., Lokhande, R. S. and Rajput,
countries especially the populace Nigeria. S. I., (2005). Monitoring of Organic
Pollutants in Thane Creek Water,
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