Synthesis of Rhodinol Ester from Citronella Oil Reduction Product

Abstract

: Rhodinol is a mixture of citronellol and geraniol that can be esterified using organic acids into citronellol esters and geraniol esters to generate a specific odour as fragrances. Rhodinol esters in this study were synthesized from citronella oil by first reducing to convert the citronellal in citronella oil into citronellol. Reduction was carried out using NaBH 4 in conditions with ethanol as a solvent and without a solvent and the variation of mole ratio. Esterification of reduction product (rhodinol) was done to produce rhodinol ester. Reduction citronellal in citronella oil was efficient without solvent in the mole ratio of citronellal and NaBH 4 1:1, and successfully converted citronellal to citronellol with the rhodinol total (citronellol and geraniol) was 65.85%. Esterification of rhodinol produced 69.69% rhodinol ester which contains 55.16 % citronellyl acetate and 14.53% geranyl acetate.