, and the others in South Asia. Cymbopogon exuosus and Cymbopogon citratus represent the two major species vastly cultivated for their essential oils in different regions of the world. C. citratus is known by numerous international common names, such as West Indian lemon grass or lemon grass (English), citronelle or verveine des indes (French), hierba limon or zacate de limón (Spanish), xiang mao (Chinese), capimcidrao or capim-santo (Portuguese), and locally there are identi ed more than 28 indigenous names from different countries of the world. The genus Cymbopogon has been reviewed comprehensively in several articles [Avoseh et al., 2015; Haque et al., 2018]. C. citratus is an aromatic, evergreen, clump-forming, perennial grass producing numerous stiff stems arising from a short rhizomatous rootstock, and growing around 1.5 m tall. It rarely produces owers. The leaves are blue-green in colour, at, erect, linear in shape and give off a characteristic lemon avour when they are crushed. C. citratus is considered to have its origin in Malaysia, nowadays it is widely cultivated in the Central and South America and parts of Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean Islands, both on a commercial scale and in gardens especially in the South