Progressive Horticulture

Tagetes minuta popularly known as stinking Roger, belongs to family asteraceae and is native to South America. It has now become widespread through out the world, growing wild in South Africa, Australia, India, Uruguay, East Africa, Brazil and France etc. This herb is highly valued for its essential oil. Tagetes minuta gives high yield and best quality oil among all the cultivated Tagetes species. The major use of the Tagetes oil is in perfumery. The floral oil and solutes are used for compounding high grade perfumes. The oil is also reported to exhibit bronchodilatory, tranquilizing and anti-inflammatory properties. The present studies have been taken to assess physico- chemical properties of essential oil in case of Tagetes minuta for evaluating its quality. The various physico-chemical properties used for quality evaluation are specific gravity, refractive index, optical rotation, acid number, ester number and carbonyl value expressed as percent ketone. The essential oil registered specific gravity less than water but possess higher refractive index as compared to water. The essential oil of Tagetes minuta was found to be dextrorotatory with value ranging from 4⁰16’ to 4⁰43’. Ester number and ketone per cent as revealed by carbonyl value suggest that Tagetes minuta oil evaluated in the present investigations is pleasant smelling and of high olfactory value.