Saturday, July 9, 2011

Vetiver oil

Vetiveria zizanoides Stapt is a source of vetiver oil, include the family of Graminae or grasses. It has a very fragrant smell, grow in a dense, scarlet highly branched root fibers. It can be planted any time of year, but it is best at the beginning of the rainy season.
Vetiver oil production is done by steam distillation at a multilevel pressure 1-3 atm for 8-9 hours at a rate of distillation from 0.7 to 0.8 liters oil / kg roots / hour. Average yield of this oil is ranged from 1.5 to 2%. Its quality not only depends on the age of the roots, but also depends on the length of distillation. The smell of charred (burnt) is due to quickly distillation which will reduce the oil prices and quality which buyers expected.
The compounds that make up the vetiver oil are: vetiveron, vetiverol, vetivenil, vetivenal, palmitic acid, benzoic acid, and vetivena. It is used as raw materials of cosmetics, perfumes, soaps and fragrance materials. It has a pleasant odor, hard, durable, and besides that it also serves as an odor binder (fixative).
Estimated worldwide demand of this essential oil is more than 200 tons / year. Indonesia is an important player with production area center in Garut which provide a total area of 2063 ha and the production as much as 34.5 tons in 2007. Today, in addition to Europe, this oil is also exported to USA, Japan, and Singapore.
Its plant can control dengue fever mosquito populations. Strong smell of vetiver oil that comes out of this plant is quite deadly to the kind of mosquitoes.
Based on the results of research conducted by Sri Murwarni (2002), in the form of utilization of its extracts to control the mosquito of Aedes aegypti and Anopheles aconitus, which include biological testing the toxicity of the extract for LC50 and LT50 of the Aedes aegypti mosquito larvae. Based on these experiments, then the test conducted showed toxicity, the extract with a concentration of 0.20 percent and 0.25 percent was able to kill the Aedes aegypti mosquito larvae within approximately two hours.
In southern India, traditionally, its grass is planted along a particular path as a permanent boundary between the land. Whereas in Java, the grass is planted on sloping sites. The ability of the grass for use as erosion control has been widespread throughout the tropics, since the 1980s. In Central Java, the combination planting that grass, elephant grass, Sengon and Kara trees surely can control erosion, slope stability and spur the development of soil physical properties of the former volcanic eruption at Mount Merapi.
Vetiver oil as a commodity unique needs diperlajari further, not only from the aspect of their utilization but also the cultivation and processing to obtain a high quantity and quality.

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2 comments:

  1. Is that all the compounds found in vetiver oil or are there more? I read somewhere the oil is very complex and made up of 60 compounds. Is that true? If so can you give me the name of these compounds. P.S. Great Article

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    1. You're right. I only mentioned the major components of vetiver essential oil. There are more..

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