Isolation of citronellal from citronella oil (Cymbopogon winterianus) and lemon eucalyptus (Eucalyptus citriodora) oil by using the vacuum fractional distillation

Citronella (Cymbopogon winterianus) and lemon eucalyptus (Eucalyptus citriodora) are two foremost candidates for producing citronellal from natural sources. This study separated citronellal from the above essential oils by using the vacuum fractional distillation to enhance market value of citronellal. A temperature - distillation time diagram was built combined with chromatography analysis to determine the compositions in each fraction. All investigations were evaluated based on the yield, citronellal content and recovery in its main fraction. The results showed that citronella oil can be separated into four fractions while there were two fractions in lemon eucalyptus oil. Citronellal was able to separate with high content in F2 fraction of citronella and lemon eucalyptus, which accounted for 91.58% and 87.51%, respectively.