Quality assessment of citronella oil with regulated extraction temperature

This study analyzed the effect of temperature during steam distillation extraction on the essential oil quality. An improvised steam distillation system was applied for Cymbopogon nardus extraction with the capability to regulate the steam temperature at any desired value. The quality was evaluated using refractive index and GC-MS analysis. The results were compared with the international standard for citronella oil (BS ISO 3849:2003) and against the data gathered from literatures. The chemical compounds are much differed from literatures but complied with the minimum requirements from the ISO standard. Nonetheless, quality improvement of the yield can be observed between each sample from different temperature settings.