Jakarta, April 16 -- Indonesia's National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) is developing purification technology for essential oils to produce high-quality raw materials for the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries, a researcher said Thursday.

Egi Agustian of BRIN's Molecular Chemistry Research Center said the agency is using advanced techniques including vacuum fractional distillation, supercritical CO extraction, molecular distillation, and ultrasonic-based processing.

"This approach enables more specific separation of active compounds, producing high-purity, stable outputs suited to industrial needs," he said.

One of BRIN's research outcomes is refining citronella oil into citronellal with purity above 90 percent, Agustian s...