Medico-Nutritional facts of lemongrass (Cymbopogon citrates): A review

Lemon grass Cymbopogoncitratusis an aro matic tropical perennial grass is native to South India and Sri Lanka, now widely cultivated in the tropical areas of America and Asia, belonging to the family Gramineae. The prefix ‘lemon’ owes to its typical lemon like odor, which is mainly due to the presence of citral, a cyclic monoterpene. Es sen tial oils are widely used in fla vours, fra grances, cos me tics, soaps, de ter gents and per fum ery ow ing to their typ i cal lemon and rose-like aroma. Plants are uti lized as ther a peu tic agents since time imme mo rial in both or ga nized (Ayurveda, Unani) and un orga nized (folk, tribal, na tive) form. Plants have been iden ti fied as the po tent ther a peu tic agent, due to the pres ence of nu tri tional (min er als and vi ta mins) and non-nu tri tional com po nent (fibres, ac tive phytochemicals), in clud ing the flavonoids, terpenoids, lignans, sul fides, polyphenolics, ca rot en oids, etc.), due to pro moted as “func tional food”. Lemon grass has high an ti ox i dant lev els. It has been claimed Cymbopogoncitratuspos sesses var i ous phar ma co log i cal ac tiv i ties such as anti-amoe bic, anti-bac te rial, anti-diarrheal, anti-filarial, anti-fun gal and anti-in flamma tory prop er ties and var i ous other effects like anti-ma lar ial, anti-mutagenicity, anti-mycobacterial, anti-ox i dants, hypoglycemic and neurobehavioral.