Asian Journal of Research in Botany

Aim and objectives: Citral is the first ingredient to synthesize many other substances of higher value for the pharmaceutical and fragrance industry so finding sources of essential oils containing citral is an important and necessary task. The objective of this study is to survey the citral-bearing plants from Vietnam, search for essential oil plants with high yield and citral content, which can be exploited in large quantities to extract citral sources for fragrance and pharmaceutical industry. Materials and methods:  By the method of fresh sampling of essential oil plants in Vietnam, extract essential oils by distillation with steam and then analyze on high-resolution chromatography (HRGC) to search for citral sources.

Results:  We have found that some areas with a lot of plants containing high citral content which grow concentrated wild in forests as Litsea cubeba (Litsea cubeba Pers) containing 60-70% citral, Wild marjoram (Elsholtzia winitiana Craib): 55-75%, White basil ( Ocimum basilicum Linn): 60-75% can be exploited to source essential oils to extract citral. We also pointed out that essential oils containing high citral content as Lemongrass (Cymbopogon flexuosus Stapf and Cymbopogon citratus Stapf): 60-75%, Citronella (Cymbopogon tortilis (Presl) A. Camus): 40-55%, Marjoram (Elsholtzia cristata Hyland}: 30-50%, can be planned to cultivate the essential oil source to obtain citral for the pharmaceutical and aromatic industry.

Conclusion:  During the survey, we discovered and listed a list of 22 plants with essential oil containing citral in Vietnam.