Comparative Morphological Assessment of Lemongrass (Cymbopogon spp.) Cultivars for Oil yield, Chemical Composition and Quality Parameters under Southern region of India

摘要

Lemongrass (Cymbopogon flexuosus) is an important perennial aromatic plant and natural source of citral that is used in the preparations of variousperfumes.In the present study, eight lemongrass cultivars were evaluated for growth, herbage, and essential oil yield during 2018-2019 inthe southern region of Karnataka, India. Results revealed that significant differences were noticed in the growth and yield parameters of eight lemongrass cultivars studied. The plant height and the number of tillers varies, ranging from 108.47-136.75cm and 38.13-47.60, respectively. Significantly higher herbage yield (t/ha/year) was recorded in CIM-Shikar (24.25), followed by Krishna (22.50) and CKP-25 (20.72). The lowest herbage yield wasrecorded in the Cauvery cultivar. Essential oil content varied from 0.70-1.35 (v/w) and essential oil yield varies from 133.56- 302.40 kg/ha/ year in different cultivars. The amount of citral varied from 2.20 to 88.14 among eight lemongrass cultivars. The varieties arranged according to the citral content as follows, Cauvery (88.84 ± 0.99) >Nima (88.57 ± 0.70) >CIM-Shikar (84.97 ± 4.08) >OD-19 (85.90 ± 0.59) >CIM-Suvarna (82.53 ± 1.10) >CKP-25 (81.84 ± 0.30) >Krishna (79.26 ± 0.44) >CIM-Atal (2.15 ± 0.07). CIM-Atal was superior in geraniol (88.92 ± 1.00) compared to citral (geranial and neral) content among lemongrass cultivars studied; this cultivar may be a partial replacement/ substitute for geraniol rich essential oil-bearing plant in the future. Overall, cultivar CIM-Shikar was superior to other cultivars in terms of essential oil yield (302.40 kg/ha/year) and superior in citral content (84.97 ± 4.08).