Interactions

Like all organisms, Cymbopogon citratus holds a place in the food web. As an autotrophic plant species, Lemongrass is a primary producer and serves to provide food for the other trophic levels.

We ourselves, consume this plant as a spice or flavoring in many foods and beverages. We chop the tender inner core of the plant and use in our favorite poultry and Oriental dishes, or we used the tough outer parts of the stalk to flavor our different teas and soups. However, we only do this with the fresh stalks because once dried out they yield little flavor. See nutrition for reasons why lemongrass why it is a sustainable food source. Another delicious plant commonly used as as seasoning is Sage. Another great tea is made using the organism Chenopodium ambrosioides

Cymbopogon citratus also does many other great things for us. Many people believe that it holds some medicinal effects on the body. Lemongrass has long since been used in Brazil as an old "folk remedy" for treating nervous and gastrointestinal upsets as well as fevers. A study was conducted to test this theory, and it was proved that, in a few instances,  injection of 200 mg/kg  Citral (the main component of the essential oil in Brazilian lemongrass) and doses of up to C208 of an  infusion made from pouring boiling water over the leaves did demonstrate these effects. For information on another interesting, medicinal plant see St. Johns Wort.

It was also discovered in that the Citral in the oil has cancer fighting abilities. It was shown that 1 gram of Citral was enough to cause malignant cancer cells to undergo programmed cell death. It was also shown in a study by Food and Nutrition Research institute that when boiled, every 100 grams contains up to 24,205 micrograms of the cancer preventative anti-oxidant beta-carotene.

The detoxification properties of lemongrass were investigated at University of Wisconsin, and it was found that the oil in during the clinical trial, the responders cholesterol had been lowered by as much as 38 points. After the study, their cholesterol they returned back to their normal levels. It is believed that reduction of fat and cholesterol increases blood pressure and circulation.

Lemongrass oil was also proved to be an fungicide in an experiment conducted on the effects of Cymbopogon citratus on Aspergillus flavus. This fungus had developed on the staple food rice, causing an issue throughout many countries. In effort to create a natural remedy, the oil was applied to the rice, revealing that the toxicity of the oil inhibited the growth of the fungus.

Cymbopogon citratus oil has also been used as an antibacterial agent throughout African countries. This, like the fungicide claim was also studied in lab. It was revealed that when steamed, the leaves release and oil that contains three components that they were able to test on gram- positive bacterial organisms with a thick peptidoglycan layer, and  gram-negative bacterial organisms with a thinner peptidoglycan layer that is located beneath an outer membrane. The α-citral (geranial) and β-citral (neral) both exhibited antibacterial action on both types of bacteria oraganisms; however myrcene, the third component in the oil, did not exhibit antibacterial action unless it was combined with one of the other two components.

Upon interacting with certain insects, like the Tribolium castaneun Herbst for example, Cymbopogon citratus's oil has been shown to work as an insect repellant. When isolated from the plant, the geranial, neral, and geraniol in the oil are shown to have 100% repellency of the insects at 2 hr exposure when diluted to 1.0 mLˆ-1. The oil exhibited a high toxic potency, and was proven to be successful as and insect repellent.