ABSTRACT:
Patchouli (Pogostemon cablin) is an aromatic herb. It is a very fragrant, bushy herb with soft oval leaves and square stems. Essential oil, having high economic importance known as patchouli oil, oil is present in the plant. Patchouli oil is widely used in food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. The main composition of patchouli oil is patchouli alcohol. The demand of the nation for patchouli oil majorly is met by imports. Hence, to mitigate the short supply and save valuable foreign exchange, it is important to focus on the post harvest processing particularly on the extraction of its oil. This study was conducted with the objective to increase oil recovery by maintaining the oil quality. Drying of herbage before extraction was done to 15% moisture content. The shade dried samples were kept at room temperature and treated with microbial culture Aspergillus foetidus, Penicillium citrinum and Trichosporon asteroides for 2, 4, 6 and 8 days along with fresh and control samples. The oil was extracted for 7 h using Clevenger apparatus. It was observed that the oil recovery increased by the treatment of all three cultures viz. Aspergillus foetidus, Penicillium citrinum and Trichosporon asteroides from 1.43 to 1.85%, 1.92% and 1.98% (w/w) respectively. The oil recovery was highest in the herbage samples treated with the Trichosporon asteroides. All the extracted oil samples have shown the values of physico-chemical parametre in the standard permissible range of patchouli oil except the oil extracted after 4 days of incubation with the culture Penicillium citrinum.