Phytochemical Contents of Essential Oils from Cymbopogon Species: A Tropical Medicinal Plant

Abstract

Natural resources especially medicinal plants possess the potentials to sustain all existence on earth. Cymbopogon, a globally cultivated herb, possesses high contents of diverse essential oils for medicinal and economic purposes including treatment of malaria and candidiasis. Notable species include Cymbopogon citratus and C. flexosus having citral as the main chemical compound. Numerous compounds of these species include limonene, citronella, geranyl acetic derivatives, elemol, among others. Phytochemical analysis of these essential oils is usually done by the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method sequel to obtaining them through solvent extraction, hydrodistillation, supercritical CO2 extraction, chromatography among others. Although the supercritical CO2 extraction method gives greater quality yields void of toxic wastes with preserved thermal stability compared with other methods, its high-working pressure generates issues of safety risks and costs. Quantitative determination is done using spectrophotometric, chromatographic, and Folin-Ciocalteu methods. In comparison with other chromatographic techniques employed, gas chromatography exhibits greater efficiency by quantifying and determining the presence of various components at low concentrations. This prominently economical plant with potent ethnobotanical benefits hinged on the essential oils phytochemicals is faced with diverse extraction challenges; thus, improvement in the extraction and quantification techniques is key to the harvest of pure yields of lemon grass essential oils.