Authentication of lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) and citronella (Cimbopogon nardus) essential oils in fragrance products using FTIR spectroscopy combined with chemometrics

Lemongrass plants are natural herbs that contain essential oils, which have been used as aromatic ingredients in the pharmaceutical, perfume, and culinary industries. As lemongrass oil is expensive to manufacture, they are frequently adulterated with other oils. Therefore, commercial oil products should undergo authentication analysis. The purpose of this study is to authenticate lemongrass essential oil in commercial products using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and chemometrics. Lemongrass oil was extracted through steam and water distillation methods. These were used as raw essential oils in the reference product formulations. These formulations were analysed by FTIR spectroscopy, and the spectra obtained were processed quantitatively using the PLS method and qualitatively using the PCA method. The PLS model was the most optimal at 3383-2270 cm-1, with R2 values of 0.9985, 0.9999, and 0.9989, and an RMSEC value of 1.25 %. Discriminant analysis found that the commercial product contained citronella and lemongrass oils