A NATIVE STUDY ON GERANIUM PLANTATION AND PRODUCTION OF GERANIUM OIL EXTRACTION BY USING STEAM DISTILLATION

Abstract

: The present work has been studied on investigation of harvesting conditions of Geranium plantation. Geranium (Pelargonium graveolens L.) commonly known as rose-scented pelargonium, rose-scented geranium or rose geranium is one of the many fragrant species of Pelargonium, belonging to the family Geraniaceae. Geranium oil is one of the top 20 essential oils in the world, which has wide application in perfumery, cosmetics and flavor industry etc. It forms a part of many high-grade perfumes, antifungal, insect repellant and antibacterial activity; thus, it has extensive use in medicinal and agrochemical field. In literature, several authors were used different traditional extraction methods; such as soxhlet extraction, hydro distillation, solvent extraction and steam distillation etc. In this work, author has used the most promised technique as steam distillation for geranium oil extraction. The purpose of this work is to investigate the suitable conditions of geranium harvesting and method of suitability for extraction of geranium with higher yield in limited facilities and lower cost. Finally, author has conducted detailed analysis on soil for harvesting conditions of geranium plants and characterization of geranium oil by using GC-Analysis.