Citronellal Acetylation Using Ni-Co Metal Impregnated Hierarchical Zeolite Catalysis and Its Potential as an Antibacterial, Antifungal and Antioxidants

An essential oil from fragrant lemongrass plants ( Cymbopogon nardus L) or citronella has many health benefits. The main components contained in citronella essential oil are citronellol, geraniol and citronellal. Isopulegyl acetate is one byproduct of citronellal acetylation. The objective of this research was to determine the catalytic activity of Ni-Co Metal Impregnated Hierarchical Zeolite in the acetylation reaction of citronellal with acetic anhydride and its potential used for antimicrobial, antifungal and antioxidants activities. The morphological characterization of modified-naturals zeolite analyzed by X-Ray Diffraction- Surface Area Analyzer and SEM to see the structure enhancing its function as heterogeneous catalysts. Synthesized isopulegyl acetate made from citronela that analyzed by ATR-FTIR and GCMS confirmed that isopulegyl acetate produced from the reaction are valids. In Vitro evaluation is done to show the antioxidants activity and it concluded that there is no significant activity from isopulegyl acetate. the results of antimicrobial evaluation of isopulegyl acetate show that this synthesized compound shown that it is such an effective agent of antimicrobial due to its ability to eliminate the staphylococcus aureus, and its decent activity of antifungal to inhibit the development of candida albicans.