Separation of citral isomers from lemongrass oil by flash and prep HPLC
Lemongrass is cultivated around the world. It`s mainly grown for its oils, which have a number of uses including for vitamin A, perfumes, insect spray, cosmetics, perfumes, food and drinks. Lemongrass is also enjoyed as a tea throughout the world. Lemongrass oil contains several monoterpenes, with citral being the major component, present at levels between 65-85%. Citral (3,7-dimethyl-2,6- octadienal) is the name given to a natural mixture of two isomeric acyclic monoterpene aldehydes: geranial (transcitral, citral A) and neral (cis-citral, citral B). In addition to citral, the lemongrass oil consists of small quantities of geraniol, geranylacetate, and monoterpene olefins, such as myrcene.
