Pogostemon cablin (patchouli) is a medicinal herb well known for its
essential oil derived from the leaves. Patchouli oil shows excellent base note
in fragrance industries for its fixatives properties and its patchouli alcohol
(patchoulol) is used as quality indicator for its oil. However, the P. cablin is
the only commercial source of patchoulol and cannot be obtained
synthetically in the laboratory. Higher demand in the production of its
essential oil gave a significant contribution for in vitro grown P.cablin to
meet the market supply for industries. Hence, in this study, the essential oil
in both in vitro and ex vitro P.cablin were extracted from its leaves by means
of hydrodistillation method and its phytochemical constituents were
identified and compared using Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry.
The yield and quality of its essential oil from both in vitro and ex vitro
P.cablin’s leaves were investigated. In vitro patchouli essential oil extraction
gaves higher yield (40 ml) than the ex vitro patchouli essential oil (26 ml)
under similar condition for hydrodistillation. Six major components were
identified through GC-MS and was compared between two samples which
are β- patchoulene, Caryophyllene, α- guaiene, α- cedrene, α- bulnesene and
Patchouli alcohol. The patchoulol, which is the main constituents that is
important in fixative had doubled (42.18 %) in the in vitro P.cablin essential
oil compared to ex vitro (29.24%). This finding was reflected based on the
peak area percentage of each substance through GC-MS. Other constituents
in the in vitro P.cablin were found still competitive to the ex vitro in slightly
lower values. Overall, in vitro P.cablin showed higher yield and quality
compared to the ex vitro grown P.cablin.