EVALUATION OF AGRONOMICAL VARIABLES IN THE CULTIVATION OF LEMON GRASS (Cymbopogon citratus Stapf) FOR THE PRODUCTION OF ESSENTIAL OIL

Cymbopogon citratus Stapf (lemon grass) is a perennial herb of the Poacea family, which is used for the production of essential oil with high citral content, useful for the perfume, food and pharmaceutical industries. In Venezuela, there is no commercial production of this species, known as "limonaria". An experiment was carried out from April 2004 to May 2005, so as to evaluate three nitrogen application rates (60, 120 and 180kg.ha(-1)) and three re-growth periods (45, 60 and 75 days) were evaluated. The experimental design was bifactorial, with a completely randomized block arrangement. The yield of essential oil was only found to differ significantly (p<0.05) in at 60 and 75 days re-growth periods, when the highest values were obtained, without significant differences among them. Oil quality, measured as the percentage of citral, was not affected by the treatments. The average percentage of citral was higher the 73% required by the industry. No damage by insects was observed. Puccinia sp. fungi were observed in 100% of the plots, with 9-17% severities, but it did not affect the oil quality. A simple handling is proposed for this species, based on medium nitrogen fertilization, appropriate re-growth periods and weed control, in order to obtain higher production and quality of the essential oil.