Extraction and Characterisation of Essential Oil from Lemon Grass (Cymbopogon citratus) Grown in Ebonyi State

Cymbopogon citratus, commonly known as lemon grass, is a widely cultivated aromatic grass in South East Nigeria that has been used for centuries in food flavouring, traditional medicine, and insect repellent applications. Despite its abundance, systematic chemical characterisation of essential oil from lemon grass cultivated under the specific agro-climatic conditions of Ebonyi State remains scarce. This study extracted and characterised essential oil from lemon grass leaves and stems obtained from farms in three local government areas of Ebonyi State. Hydrodistillation using a Clevenger apparatus was employed for extraction, and characterisation was performed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Physical properties including refractive index, specific gravity, optical rotation, and solubility were also determined. Oil yield averaged 0.68 percent on a wet-weight basis. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis identified twenty-three compounds, with citral (comprising neral and geranial isomers) constituting 78.4 percent of total oil composition. Other significant constituents included myrcene at 6.2 percent, limonene at 3.8 percent, and terpineol at 2.1 percent. The high citral content is consistent with values reported for lemon grass oils from comparable tropical environments and confers significant antifungal, antimicrobial, and antioxidant potential. These findings validate the quality and potential commercial value of Ebonyi-grown lemon grass as a source of citral-rich essential oil for pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industry applications. Scaled-up cultivation and distillation are recommended as a rural economic development strategy.

Keywords: Cymbopogon citratus, essential oil, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, citral, Ebonyi State