Efficacy of Practical Steam Distillation Set for Distillating Lemon and Citronella Grasses Oil

Abstract

Simplify steam distillation set for distillating the volatile oil from lemon and citronella grasses was designed. The efficacy of this practical set was tested by steaming the grasses comparing with the conventional steam distillation in Laboratory. The practical steam distillation set was composed of cylindrical stainless boiling pot with open three tubes at the lid, steel ice box (cooling box with three incline through stainless tubes, three water hose connecting boiling pot and ice box, and cooking gas stove. The laboratory steam distillation set has electric heater, boiling flask, glass condenser, cooling water system and separating flask. The oil yield of practical set compared between two kind of cooling media; running water (35-39 degree C) and water with ice (10-20 degree C) in cooling box. The practical sets gave oil yield of lemon and citronella grasses about 17-28% and 44-60% more than the laboratory set, respectively. The oil yield gain of both grasses was not significant difference between two kind of cooling media. This indicated that the designed practical steam distillation set is simple and effective for the farmer use to distill volatile oil from lemon and citronella grasses.