EFFECTS OF SIZES AND MICROWAVE DRYING ON THE YIELD OF CITRONELLA OIL BY HYDRO DISTILLATION

ZULHAIRUN ABDUL KARIM & NOORHALIEZA ALI* Faculty of Chemical Engineering Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor Darul Tazim.

*Corresponding author: Tel: +6075535597; Email: halieza@cheme.utm.my

ABSTRACT The effects of microwaves drying and cut size of citronella grass (Cymbopogon Nardus) on the yield of citronella oil using hydro distillation is studied. Drying is carried out at a constant power supply of 850 watts with different drying times of 2, 3, 4 and 5minutes at various cut of 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5cm. It is observed that 5minutes-microwave-dried and 0.5cm cut size citronella leaves give the most citronella oil yield of 0.112 wt %.

Keywords: Citronella; Hydro Distillation; Microwave Drying; Cut Size; Oil Yield

ABSTRAK Kesan pra-rawatan pengeringan gelombang mikro dan saiz daun citronella (Cymbopogon Nardus) terhadap penghasilan minyak citronella menggunakan penyulingan-air adalah dikaji. Pengering gelombang mikro digunakan pada bekalan kuasa yang malar, iaitu 850 watt dengan tempoh pengeringan yang berbeza-beza iaitu selama 2, 3, 4 dan 5minit dengan saiz potongan daun 0.5, 1.0 dan 1.5cm. Dapat diperhatikan bahawa daun citronella

yang dikeringkan selama 5minit menggunakan pengering gelombang mikro dengan potongan daun 0.5cm menghasilkan minyak citronella terbanyak iaitu 0.112 wt %.

Kata Kunci: Citronella; Penyulingan Air; Pengering Gelombang Mikro; Saiz Potongan; Hasil Minyak

1.0

INTRODUCTION

Aromatic plants possess distinctive smell volatile substances which occur as essential oil, balsam and oleoresin in one or more parts, namely, root, wood, bark, stem, foliage, flower and fruit. The characteristic aroma is due to a variety of complex chemical compounds. The term essential oil is associated to fragrance or perfumes because these fragrances are oily in nature and they represent the essence or the active constituents of the plants. They are called volatile or ethereal oils as they evaporate when exposed to air at ordinary temperatures [4]. Essential oils are highly concentrated, low volume, high value products.

Production of essential oils has been developing into a very profitable agro-industry during the last few years. Essential oils usages become more widely in the market nowadays. The essential oils are today used in soaps, perfumery, cosmetics, disinfectants, mosquito repellents, flavoring of foods and pharmaceuticals and a range of allied products. Therefore there is a need to improve the conventional extraction method in order to maximize the production of essential oil.

Citronella is an oil-yielding grass belonging to the genus Cymbopogon. It is a perennial multi-crop of industrial importance, comprises about 140 species that are widely distributed in semi-temperate to tropical regions of Asia, Africa and America. Approximately 45 species have been reported to occur in India [5]. The essential oil of citronella is extracted from two types of citronella. The first one is the Ceylon type, whose scientific name is Cymbopogon Nardus and the second one is Java type, called Cymbopogon Winterianus in botanical terminology.

2.0

METHODOLOGY

Firstly, the wilted leaves were removed prior to further treatment. Then the citronella grass was washed with tap water to removed dirt and stain that adhere to the sample. Afterward, the sample was cut into 0.5 cm, 1.0 cm and 1.5 cm in length using sharp scissors to avoid loss of oils during the procedure. The samples were then packed separately according to their length and kept inside an air-tight container at room temperature.

After that, the samples were dried using Sharp domestic microwave oven model: R4A53 with the following specifications: rated power output of 850 watts (240V~50 Hz), operation frequency of 2450 MHz is used. Every 100 g of sample was dried for 2 to 5minutes. The weight of the dried sample is then noted to determine the dryness (in percent) of the sample prior to hydro distillation.

During distillation, the sample is distilled with 600 mililiter of water. The heating mantle is heated to 90C for 2 hours under normal pressure starting from the initial

condensation of the oil. The distillate is collected for solvent extraction to obtain the pure citronella oil.

Separation of water from oil was done by adding 100ml hexane to the mixture in a separation funnel. The water layer is removed by decantation. The oil-solvent mixture was put into a rotary evaporator to separate the oil from the solvent. The rotary evaporator was set at 65oC to 70oC which is the boiling point of hexane. The hexane evaporates leaving behind the oil. The mass of oil left was then noted down.

3.0

RESULT AND DISCUSSIONS

3.1

Oil Yield

Hydro distillation of citronella leaves produced a yellowish essential oil with citrus odour. The data of the experimental yield versus cut size and drying time of the citronella are showed in Table 1. The yield is around 0.020 to 0.112 wt %.

3.2

Effect of Drying Time on Oil Yield

The samples were dried by microwave oven at four various times of 2, 3, 4 and 5minutes. The oil yield by microwave-dried citronella are compared to the oil yield from the hydrodistilled fresh citronella. According to Figure 1, the oil yield is proportional to drying time. The highest oil yield is 0.112 wt % obtained from the 0.5cm sample which is dried for 5minutes. The amount is approximately twice that of the sample with the same cut size but

was not dried. The different in oil yield between the samples become more significant when the cut size increases.

Overall, the microwave-dried samples produce higher oil yield compared to non-dried samples. This is in agreement with previous study where more essential oils can be extracted from dried aromatic plants compared to fresh aromatic plants [1]. During drying, the cell walls of the plants are ruptured making it easier for steam to reach the essential oil during distillation resulting in more oils being distilled. The longer is the time taken for drying, the greater is the rupture of the cell walls of the plant resulting in more oil being extracted. On the other hand, less is obtained from the fresh samples as the steam could not easily pass the barrier of the cell walls resulting in less oil yield.

Drying the essential oil plants increases the yield obtained considerably. The aromatic plants with lower moisture content make distilling more efficient [2]. However, excessive dryness due to longer drying will destroy the oil glands resulting in less oil yield due to oil loss during drying. An optimum drying time need to be studied as to have the optimum oil yield.

3.3

Effect of Cut Size on Oil Yield

Both fresh and dried leaves were cut into three equal sizes of 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5cm. It is observed that, the samples with 0.5cm leave cut produced more citronella oil compared to the others as shown in Figure 2. The negative gradient of the curves in Figure 2 shows that oil yield decrease with increasing cut size of the samples. The samples with 1.5cm cut size

produced least oil, regardless of their drying times. The difference in oil yield can be clearly observed for 1.5cm samples; the highest yield obtained for 5minute drying time (0.076 wt %), followed by 4minute drying time (0.055 wt %), 3minute drying time (0.048 wt %), and 2minute drying time (0.040 wt %) and the least from the fresh sample (0.020 wt %).

The oil extracted becomes lesser as their cut size increases. The citronella leaves with smaller cut size yields more essential oil. Smaller leaves cut will provide more surface area for extracting the oils from the leaves [3]. A large surface area of the oil gland is created for maximum exposure and reducing mass transfer resistance and more accessible to the solvent action during extraction. As a result, more essential oil is carried up with the water vapor as distilate.

4.0

CONCLUSION

The yield of citronella oil from different cut sizes and different drying time using domestic microwave oven is studied. From this study, the best condition for extracting the essential oil from citronella grass (cymbopogon nardus) is 5minutes microwave-dried with leaves cut size of 0.5cm. It is proven that drying and cutting the leaves into smaller size enhance the yield of citronella oils.

All of samples yield oil below the standard recovery (0.7 1.0% w/w), which might be due to the inefficient cutting method and prolonged storage of samples. The oil is contained in oil glands, veins or hairs which are often very fragile. Cutting the leaves will break these structures and release the oils. Cutting led to a significant decrease of oil content

in the samples. In addition, the samples should be immediately subjected to distillation in order to ensure optimum citronella oil yield.

Eventhough the overall oil yields are less, the main objectives of this study were successfully achieved. The yield of citronella essential oil has been proven to be influenced by drying using microwave oven. The application of microwaves pretreatment shortened the drying process. Moreover, the leaves cut size also affect the oil yield obtained as supported by other studies [3].

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors thank Universiti Teknologi Malaysia for providing the apparatus and chemicals used in this research.

REFERENCES

[1]

Fatemeh, S., Gholamreza, B. K. and Khadijeh, A. (2006). Influence of Drying and Extraction Methods on Yield and Chemical Composition of the Essential Oil of Satureja Hortensis. Journal of Food Chemistry. 99, 19 23

[2]

Mana Khai Rangahau. (2000). Essential oil Production from Manuka & Kanuka. Crop & Food Research, 11

[3]

Marco, C. A., R. Innecco, S. H. Mattos, N. S. S. Borges, and Sebastiao M. F. (2006). Influence of Spacing, Cut Height and Harvest Time on Biomass Yield and Essential Oil Content of Citronella Grass. Agronomic Science Journal, Vol. 37, No. 1, 32-36

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Prabuseenivasan, S., Jayakumar, M. and Ignacimuthu, S. (2006). In Vitro Antibacterial Activity of Some Plant Essential Oils. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 6, 39

[5]

Usawadee, S., Onanong N., Napaporn U., Satit P., Apinan S. and Uracha R. (2009). Characterization and Mosquito Repellent Activity of Citronella Oil Nanoemulsion. International Journal of Pharmaceutics. 372, 105111

Table 1 Experimental Results

Sample

Drying time (min)

Sizes (cm) 0.5

Oil Yield (w/w %) 0.050 0.030 0.020 0.105 0.055 0.04 0.103 0.067 0.048 0.104 0.067 0.055 0.112 0.083 0.076

Fresh leaves

1.0 1.5 0.5

1.0 1.5 0.5

3 Dried leaves

1.0 1.5 0.5

1.0 1.5 0.5

1.0 1.5

0.12 0.1

Yield (w/w %)

0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Cut Size 0.5 cm Cut Size 1.0 cm Cut Size 1.5 cm

Drying Time, t (min) Figure 1 Effect of drying time on oil yield

0.12

0.1

Yield (w/w %)

0.08 2 min 0.06 3 min 4 min 0.04 5 min 0.02 Fresh

0 0 0.5 1 1.5 2

Cut Size (cm) Figure 2 Effect of cut size on oil yield