Production and bioactive compounds identification of phytomedicine essential oil using low-cost instrument

This paper investigated the employment of low-cost distillation apparatus for producing phytomedicine essential oils. Eight phytomedicine samples (ginger, lesser galangal, turmeric, zedoary, greater galangal, patchouli, wild ginger, and cinnamon) were taken from the farms located in Banyumas District, Central Java, Indonesia. The apparatus for steam distillation consisted of a 20-l boiling tank, Graham condensers, glassware, water pipe, and gas stove, flask holder used to extract eight kinds of phytomedicine, namely ginger, lesser galangal, turmeric, zedoary, greater galangal, patchouli, wild ginger, and cinnamon. Ten kg of samples were put in the boiling tank for 8 hours steam distillation process. The farmer spent IDR 4,266,000 as the production cost of essential oil. Hence, the selling price of these essential oils increased significantly compared to the selling price without processing essential oils. Distillation of turmeric and patchouli essential oil commodities generated a multiplier price index (MPI) more than 70. Lesser galangal, zedoary, greater galangal, patchouli, wild ginger, and cinnamon reached MPI between 20 and 43. Meanwhile, producing ginger essential oil yielded the highest MPI at 16.66. GC-MS analysis identified geraniol, neral, tumerone, curlone, patchouli alcohol, and cinnamaldehyde as the major compounds in these phytomedicines. Based on the references, these bioactive compounds showed high efficacy for human health such as anticancer, antioxidant, anti-microbe, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacteria, anti-tumour, antibiotic etc.