Analysis of factors affecting the volume of lemongrass oil from distiller by experimental design

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to investigate the factors consisted of a temperature, different parts of the lemongrass and a size of chopped lemongrass that affected to distillation of lemongrass essential oils. There are two experiments in this work. The first experiment investigated the factors by defining 1) temperature at 105 oC and 110 oC 2) different parts of the lemongrass (Leaves and trunk) and 3) sizes of chopped lemongrass at 1-2 cm and 15-20 cm, respectively. 2k Factorial designs method was used for this experiment. In the second experiment, the appropriate parameters from experiment 1 were used for 3 replicates to find an average of lemongrass essential oils. The results of first experimental analysis showed that the appropriate parameters were temperature, parts of the lemongrass and sizes of chopped lemongrass at 110 oC, leaves and 1-2 cm, respectively. For the result of experiment 2, it was found that the average of lemongrass essential oils was 30.36 ml.