Lemongrass 413
Yum seafood – combination of seafood and tossed with lime dressing, chilies, red
onions, tomatoes, cucumbers and lemongrass. Garnished with lettuce, scallions and
mint leaf or sweet basil.
24.7.2 Essential oil
Lemongrass oil is used in culinary flavouring. It is used in most of the major categories
of food including alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, frozen dairy desserts, candy
baked foods, gelatins and puddings, meat and meat products and fat and oils. It is
used to improve the flavour of some fish and can be used to flavour wines, sauces,
etc. Lemongrass oil has no adverse effects on the blood, liver function, kidney function,
protein, carbohydrate and lipid metabolism of rats. Studies have failed to detect
mutagenic or toxicological reactions in humans (Leung and Foster, 1996).
24.7.3 Oleoresin
Lemongrass oleoresin is mainly used in flavouring foods, drinks and bakery preparations.
24.8 Functional properties......................................................................
24.8.1 Herb
Leaves of lemongrass can be used as a source of cellulose in the manufacture of
paper and cardboard. Reduction in root-knot nematode disease was observed in soil
amended with leaves of C. flexuosus. In the Carribbean, lemongrass is primarily
regarded as a fever reducing herb (especially where there is significant catarrh). It is
applied externally as a poultice to ease pain and arthritis. In India, a paste of leaves
is smeared on patches of ringworm (Chevallier, 2001).
24.8.2 Essential oil
Lemongrass oil is one of the most important essential oils being widely used for the
isolation of citral. Citral is the starting material for the preparation of ionones. a-
ionone is used in flavours, cosmetics and perfumes. b-ionone is used for the synthesis
of vitamin A. Citral b, the most common constituent of oil, could be a good inhibitor
of b-glucuronidase. The oil has other uses as bactericide, as insect repellent and in
medicine (Alam et al., 1994; Atal and Kapur, 1997; Rodriguez et al., 1997; Sasidharan
et al., 1998; El-Kamali et al., 1998; Balz, 1999; Saikia et al., 1999). Wisprec
antimicrobial cream, made from Ocimum sanctum and C. citratus, remains intact in
its activity up to three years from the date of manufacturing (Tiwari et al., 1997;
Prashanth et al., 2002). Its mosquito repellent activity lasts for 2–3 hours (Oyedele
et al., 2002). It exhibits significant antifeedant and larvicidal activity against H.
armigera (Rao et al., 2000). It is effective against storage pests (Rajapakse and
Emden, 1997). The whole oil has fungicidal properties to plant and human pathogens
(Yadav and Dubey, 1994; Mehmood et al., 1997; Handique and Singh, 1990; Dubey
et al., 2000; Cimanga et al., 2002) and is potentially anticarcinogenic (Zheng et al.,
1993; Vinitketkumnuen et al., 2003).
The essential oils from C. citratus have been tested for their cytotoxic activity
against P 388 leukemia cells (Dubey et al., 1997). It also exhibited antioxidant activities