Citral rich high yielding lemongrass plant ‘Nima’ of Cymbopogon flexuosus

Abstract

A new and distinct high essential oil variety of lemongrass ( Cymbopogon flexuosus ) is named ‘Nima’. Further, the invention relates to the high content of the monoterpene citral in the essential oil. This novel variety ‘Nima’ of lemongrass is a selection from the open pollinated seedlings of the seeds obtained from another Cymbopogon flexuosus variety OD 19 from the germ plasm collection of CIMAP. This variety is propagated through vegetative means using the slips and is stable for commercial cultivation.

1. A plant as described and illustrated herein, said plant being a lemongrass ( Cymbopogon flexuosus ) having the following characteristics:
 a) greenish upper surface (137B), greenish lower surface (137A) purple violet (80C) florets, and rudimentary culms supporting the leaves in whorls,  
 b) yield of biomass of 250 to 300 q/ha/year and yield of oil of 220 to 260 kg/ha/year,  
 c) citral content of the oil of 85 to 90%,  
 d) produces an essential oil having a monoterpene content of: 85.0 to 90.0% citral, 0.1 to 0.5% limonene, 0.1 to 0.5% linalool, 1.0 to 2.0% geraniol, 0.5 to 1.5% geranyl acetate in addition to other unidentified monoterpene fractions totaling to 100%.