Essential oils & personal care
Indonesian lemongrass oil
Lemongrass oil is steam-distilled from the leaves of Cymbopogon citratus and related species. Buyers contract it on citral content, which is what it is used for. It is confused with citronella constantly, and the two are different grasses with different composition and different uses.
How it leaves the country.
- Crude oil
- Straight from the still, and how most of it trades. Composition follows the grass and the equipment.
- Redistilled
- Cleaner and more consistent at a higher price, for programmes that cannot absorb batch variation.
- Citral
- Isolated from the oil and sold on its own into flavour and fragrance synthesis. A separate trade.
How it is graded.
Contract on citral content and name the botanical species, because the trade names in this family overlap and the substitution is easy to make and hard to notice.
- Name the species
- Lemongrass is Cymbopogon citratus and related species. Citronella is Cymbopogon winterianus. Writing the botanical name removes the ambiguity.
- Contracted on
- Citral content, alongside colour, specific gravity, refractive index and optical rotation.
- Consistency
- Village distillation is not standardised equipment. Redistillation is what brings a programme onto a steady figure.
How it is packed.
- Containers
- Filled by net weight into lined drums, kept out of light and heat. Citral degrades with poor storage.
- Sampling
- Retain samples on both sides against the shipped batch. On an oil priced by one figure, that is the only reference that settles a dispute.
Where it grows.
West Java
Java
Growing and distillation alongside the citronella trade, with the same collectors.
Central Java
Java
The second producing belt, feeding the same exporters.
North Sumatra
Sumatra
A separate base with its own distillers.
Documentation, where applicable.
- Certificate of analysis
- Citral content and physical constants on the batch that shipped.
- Safety data sheet
- Required downstream, and the basis for how the drum is classified in transit.
- REACH
- For the EU, the registration obligation sits with the importer or an appointed only representative.1
- Certificate of origin
- Which form applies depends on the destination and on the preference scheme in force.
Questions buyers ask.
How is it different from citronella?
Different grass, different composition and different uses. Lemongrass is bought for citral, citronella for citronellal and geraniol. They smell related enough that a substitution can pass a casual check and fail an analysis.
Why does citral drop between shipment and arrival?
Citral degrades with heat, light and time. Storage between distillation and loading is where it usually happens, so ask how the lot was held and keep a retained sample to compare against.
Should I buy oil or isolated citral?
Depends on what you are making. Isolated citral is a chemical input at a chemical price; the oil carries a fuller profile. Price them against each other for your specific use rather than assuming one is cheaper.
What does your service cost?
Five per cent of the order value, paid by you and never by the factory. A factory audit starts at $250 depending on location. We work with orders from $10,000 per shipment.
Tell us what you need.
Give us the specification and the destination port. We come back with producer options and an indicative price. Our fee is 5 % of the order value, paid by you and never by the factory.
Sources
- 1Entering the European market for essential oils. CBI, Netherlands Enterprise Agency. Checked 3 August 2026.