Influence of Different Methods and Time of Post  Harvest Drying on The Essential Oil Content and  Composition in Palmarosa (Cymbopogon Martinii  (Roxb.) Wats. Var. Motia Burk.)

Pandu Sastry Kakaraparthi; Dharmendra Kumar Rajput; Niranjan Kumar Arigari; Nivedita

Volume : IV, Issue : II, February - 2014

Influence of Different Methods and Time of Post Harvest Drying on The Essential Oil Content and Composition in Palmarosa (Cymbopogon Martinii (Roxb.) Wats. Var. Motia Burk.)

Pandu Sastry Kakaraparthi, Dharmendra Kumar Rajput, Niranjan Kumar Arigari, Nivedita

Abstract :

Palmarosa (Cymbopogon martinii (Roxb.) Wats. var. motia Burk.) herb harvested at optimum time was dried both under shade and sunlight for a period of 23 days after harvest. Observations on the loss of weight , essential oil content and composition were observed at 0,1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19,21 and 23 days after harvesting. The essential oil was obtained by hydro-distillation of the leaves dried under both methods and samples were analyzed by GC. A significant decrease in the weight of herb was noticed due to drying.Significant differences were also noticed in the essential oil content and composition. Drying Methods resulted in significant improvement in the oil content, which exhibited an increase up to 7 to 9 days after harvest. Sun drying resulted in significantly more geraniol content (77.02%) compared to shade drying (76.26%). The differences observed in the geraniol content in the essential oil for first five days of drying were not significant.The content of the geranyl acetate was more in shade dried herb (14.60%) and increasing post harvest drying period significantly increased geranyl acetate content of essential oil. Day temperature exhibited a significant negative influence on oil yield, geranyl acetate and linalool contents and a significant positive influence on geraniol content.