Analisa Komposisi Kimia Minyak Atsiri Dari Tanaman Sereh Dapur dengan Proses Destilasi Uap Air

Abstract

Essential oil is one commodity export potential of agro-industry that could become a mainstay for Indonesia to earn foreign exchange. The purpose of this study is (1) to process steam and water distillation of essential oils from lemon grass kitchen, (2) Knowing the chemical composition of essential oils of lemon grass kitchen with a steam distillation process.
The process of making essential oil of lemon grass kitchen is by using distillation / distillation with direct steam. In this study, the chopped material to facilitate the release of the compounds contained. Materials and temperature can be maintained up to 100oC for steam evenly penetrates into the tissue, long distillation is relatively short, oil yield larger in guantity and better in quality, and materials that is distilled can’t be charred (Ketaren, 1985). After distillation is complete, we mil obtained essential oil of lemon grass kitchen called citronella oil. Oil from the kitchen lemongrass plant is called citronella oil. Delespaul et al., (2000) explains that citronella oil is a mixture of several volatile compounds and its main element is often used as a vegetable agent because of its ability as a traditional medicine and it’s boxicity to plants and insects.

Keywords: essential oils, distillation, kitchen lemongrass, citronella oil