Studies on preparation and preservation of lemongrass (cymbopogon flexuosus (steud) wats) powder for tea

Abstract

The leaves of six varieties of lemongrass at full maturity stage (whole and cut into 5 cm pieces) were blanched at 80°c for 1 min, dried, ground in to fine powder and analyzed for chemical constituents. The powder was stored in 200 guage plastic bags at ambient (31±4°C) condition for 6 months. The powder samples were drawn at 30 days interval and evaluated for chemical constituents and sensory quality. The lemongrass leaves of all varieties contained essential oil (1.20 to 4.40%), ascorbic acid (1.75 to 1.89 mg/100g) and total chlorophyll (7.49 to 10.76 mg/g) with reasonably good amount of ash (3.0 to 7.00%) on dry weight basis. The leaves and powder of 'Krishna' variety contained maximum essential oil, ascorbic acid and total chlorophyll followed by 'Kaveri', 'Praman', 'Pragati' 'OD-19' and 'CKP-25' varieties. The overall acceptability score of tea extract with 1% powder of lemongrass was highest. During storage for 6 months, the essential oil ascorbic acid and total chlorophyll content were significantly decreased while ash content significantly increased. However, the interactions between treatments and storage period were nonsignificant. The sensory quality scores of powders of all the varieties were significantly decreased during storage. The powder of 'Krishna' variety was rated first followed by 'CKP-25', 'Kaveri', 'OD-19', 'Pragati' and 'Praman'.