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Volatile Constituents of Cymbopogon citratus (DC.)

Stapf. Leaves
a a a
Mohd. Ali , Indu Sahrawat & Onkar Singh
a
Faculty of Pharmacy, Jamia Hamdard (Hamdard University) , P.O. Hamdard Nagar, 110062 ,
New Delhi , India
Published online: 12 Mar 2013.

To cite this article: Mohd. Ali , Indu Sahrawat & Onkar Singh (2004) Volatile Constituents of Cymbopogon citratus (DC.) Stapf.
Leaves, Journal of Essential Oil Bearing Plants, 7:1, 56-59, DOI: 10.1080/0972-060X.2004.10643365

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0972-060X.2004.10643365

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 jeobp 7(1) 2004 pp 56-59 56

ISSN 0972-060X

Volatile Constituents of Cymbopogon citratus (DC.) Stapf. Leaves

Mohd. Ali*, Indu Sahrawat and Onkar Singh

Faculty of Pharmacy, Jamia Hamdard (Hamdard University),
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P.O. Hamdard Nagar, New Delhi-110062 (India)

Abstract: Steam distilled oil of the fresh leaves of lemon grass, Cymbopogon citratus (DC)
Stapf. of Delhi region was analyzed by GLC and GC-MS. Twenty two compounds constituting about
99.7% of the volatile oil were characterized. The oil was found to contain high amount of monoterpe-
nes (95.9%) constituting mainly geranial (52.3%), cis-pinocarveol (20.2%), neral (9.8%) and limonene-
1, 2-epoxide (3.6%).

Key word Index: Cymbopogon citratus, volatile oil, monoterpenes, geranial, cis-
pinovarveol, nerol.

Introduction: Cymbopogon is an important genus of aromatic grasses belonging to

the family Poaceae, distributed in tropical and sub-tropical regions1. C. citratus (DC.) Stapf.
is tall perennial herb, throwing up dense fascicles of leaves from a short, oblique annulate
and sparingly branched rhizome2. Lemongrass oil is a yellow or amber liquid containing
about 75-85% of aldehydes, chiefly citral3, geranial and neral4,5. Two triterpenoids,
cymbopogone and cymbopogonol6 and flavones identified as luteolin and its 6-C-glucoside7
have also been isolated from leaves of C. citratus. The chemical composition of this genus
is not specific and there exist a lot of genetic variability in naturally occurring cymbopogon
with respect of oil yield, herb yield, oil quality and chemical constituents1. Lemongrass is
used in flatulence, spasmodic affections of the bowel, gastic irritability, cholera, chronic
rheumatism, neuralgia, sprains, fever2,8 and as anti-carcinogenic9. This paper describes the
chemical composition of volatile oil isolated from the fresh leaves of C. citratus grown in
Delhi by sophisticated modern techniques.

Experimental
Plant material: The fresh leaves of C. citratus were collected from the Jamia
Hamdard campus and authenticated by Dr. M.P. Sharma, Taxonomist, Department of Botany,
Jamia Hamdard.

Corresponding author (Mohd. Ali)

E-mail: <mali_chem@yahoo.co.in>
 Mohd. Ali et al./jeobp 7(1) 2004 pp 56-59 57

Isolation of Essential oil: Fresh leaves were chopped and subjected to hydro-
distillation in an all glass Clevenger-type apparatus. The oil was collected, dried over anhy-
drous sodium sulphate and stored at 40C in a refrigerator until analyzed. The oil yield was
0.33% (v/w).

GC and GC-MS analysis: GC analysis was performed using Perkin-Elmer Auto

XL system equipped with PE-5 capillary column (50m x 0.32mm, 0.25µm film thickness).
Hydrogen gas was used as carrier gas at 10-psi inlet pressure. Temperature programming
was done from 100-2800C at 30C/min. Injector temperature was 2200C and injection volume
0.1µm. Detector used FID, detector temperature 2600C. GC-MS analysis was done on the
same instrument using Helium as carrier gas at a flow rate of 2 mL/min. Temperature
programme was as above. Mass spectra were recorded at 70eV.
Downloaded by [McMaster University] at 20:50 25 December 2014

Identification of compounds: Component identification was done by comparing

the Kovats retention indices (relative to C-8 to C-22 alkanes) with those of authentic
standards available in the author’s laboratory and with the components reported in litera-
ture. The fragmentation pattern of mass spectra were compared with those stored in the
spectrometer database using the Wiley and NIST L-built in libraries and with those re-
ported in literature10-17. Peak area percentages were computed without applying FID re-
sponse factor correction.

Results and Discussion: Analysis of the oil by GLC and GC-MS resulted in the
identification of 22 components, comprising 99.7% of total volatile components. Quantita-
tively, the oil was characterized by high amount of monoterpenes (95.9%). The predominant
monoterpenes were geranial (52.3%), cis-pinocarveol (20.2%), neral (9.8%) and limonene-
1,2-epoxide (3.6%). There were six monoterpene hydrocarbons (5.2%), two alcohols (21.3%),
two aldehydes (62.1%), one ketone (0.2%) and one epoxide (3.6%). Only one aromatic
compounds, p-cymene-8-ol, occurred in 1.1% yield. Six sesquiterpenes (2.6%), including
three hydrocarbons (1.7%), one alcohol and two oxides, were also identified. Four non-
terpenic constituents, comprising 4.7% of the sample, were detected with the major con-
stituents being 3,5-trimethyl-2-(5H)-furanone (2.5%) and n-decane (1%).

Acknowledgements: The authors are thankful to the Head, RSIC, Central Drug
Research Institute, Lucknow, for recording GC and GC-MS of the volatile oil.

References
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3674-3684.
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 Mohd. Ali et al./jeobp 7(1) 2004 pp 56-59 58

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 Mohd. Ali et al./jeobp 7(1) 2004 pp 56-59 59

Table 1: Chemical composition of the volatile oil of the leaves of

C. citratus (DC.) Stapf.

S.N. Components RI % area

1 Camphene 944 1.0

2 3,5,-Trimethyl-2(5H)-furanone - 2.5
3 p-Cymene 1015 0.3
4 p-Meth-1, 3,8-triene 1037 0.6
5 n-Decane - 1.0
6 p-Cymene-8-ol 1070 1.1
7 cis-Ocimene 1027 1.2
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8 β-Myrcene 1100 2.0

9 Limonene-1, 2-epoxide 1119 3.6
10 cis-Pinocarveol 1201 20.2
11 Neral 1222 9.8
12 Geranial 1259 52.3
13 2,6-Dimethyl-2(3), 7-octadiene 1283 0.1
14 Piperitenone 1315 0.2
15 β-Caryophyllene 1405 0.8
16 α-Humulene 1431 0.1
17 γ-Cadinene 1485 0.8
18 Elemol 1524 0.2
19 Caryophyllene Oxide 1548 0.3
20 Ledene Epoxide 1598 0.4
21 Hexadecanoic acid 1923 0.9
22 Oleic acid - 0.3