The nampu plant (Homalomena aromatica) is a potential new raw material for essential oils. The Homalomena genus consists of 500 species. Distilled nampu comes from round-leaved and red-stemmed plants.
Nampu that grows in the forest also has elongated and rounded leaves, with green stems. After being distilled, the oil characteristics of the two plants are different. The linalool content of green-stemmed plants is lower than round-leaved and red-stemmed plants. The aroma is also different.
Nampu Homalomena sp. is distributed in various places in Indonesia. Nampu is a wild plant that grows in the mountains, riverbanks, lakesides, or can also be planted as an ornamental plant.
The plant is a terna plant that has a long life span with a height of 50-100 cm. Plants of the Araceae family also have a round stem shape and are not woody and have elongated rhizomes.
The nampu rhizome that is utilized is a round-leaved and red-stemmed plant.(Trubus/doc. Aristo Dian Setyawan). Nampu is single-leafed with a 50-60 cm long stalk that is round and fleshy, smooth leaf surface, and has pinnate reinforcement. Nampu leaves are 70-90 cm long with a leaf width of 20-35 cm and are dark green in color.
Distillation
To process the nampu plant into essential oil, there are several steps that need to be taken. You can cut the ‘nyampu’ rhizome-as nampu is called in Javanese-to a size of 3-5 cm and dry it completely. If the sun is strong, you can dry it for a week.
When it is cloudy and often rains, it takes 3 weeks to dry. Then grind the nampu rhizome into powder. Then you can distill the nampu powder using a distiller. Distillation lasts 3-4 hours.
The quality indicator of nampu oil is the linalool content. The higher the linalool content, the better the quality. It is the sugandh mantri oil-as nampu oil is called in Indian-that has the highest economic value.
In December 2022, nampu oil was exported to India and Vietnam for US$200-US$250 per kg, equivalent to Rp3 million-Rp3.75 million (exchange rate US$1=Rp15,000).
Source: Trubus.id