The cidró (Aloysia triphylla) is a medicinal plant shrub with aromatic leaves, which have essential oil rich in citral; this substance has great importance in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. The objective of the study was to evaluate the content and components of the essential oil of cidró depending on seasonality and harvest time. The experiment was carried out in the experimental area of the Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, Campus Dois Vizinhos, from March 2010 to September 2011. The experimental design was randomized blocks in factorial where the factors consisted of times of extraction (October 2010 to September 2011) and harvest times (8:00, 11:00, 14:00, 16:00 and 18:00 o'clock). We evaluated content and chemical composition of essential oil. The essential oil was extracted by hydrodistillation technique, using apparatus Clevenger and analyzed by gas chromatography and mass spectrophotometry (GC/MS). The month of February resulted in higher levels of essential oil of cidró at the harvest times of 16:00 and 18:00 o'clock, probably due to favorable climatic conditions and the presence of genetically active young leaves. The major constituents of the essential oil were geranial (36.96%), neral (29.31%), nerolidol (24.34%) and limonene (15.77%).
Aloysia triphylla; seasonal variation; citral
