TANAMERA lemongrass essential oil for aromatherapy

Serai or serai wangi? They are not the same grass

This trips up more people than you would expect, and it matters when you are buying.

Serai is lemongrass, Cymbopogon citratus. It is the one you cook with, the thick pale stalk you bruise before dropping into a curry. Its oil is lemony, grassy and clean.

Serai wangi is citronella, Cymbopogon nardus. A close relative, similar in appearance, but a different plant with a different oil. Citronella is the one with the long-established reputation for keeping mosquitoes at bay, and it is what goes into most repellent candles and coils.

Both come from the same genus, both smell lemony, and the two names are often used loosely by sellers, which is how people end up with the wrong bottle. If you want the kitchen-herb scent, you want serai. If mosquitoes are the main concern, citronella is the more established choice and TANAMERA sells that separately.

Fresh lemongrass stalks, serai, source of lemongrass essential oil

Where lemongrass earns its place in a Malaysian home

Think about the rooms in your house that never quite smell fresh. The kitchen after frying fish. The bathroom that gets no sun. The laundry area during a week of rain. These are the places lemongrass was made for.

Run two or three drops in a diffuser in the kitchen after cooking and the lingering oil smell lifts faster than any air freshener manages, and it does it with a scent that already belongs in that room. In a bathroom or a store room, a few drops on an aroma stone keeps the air from turning heavy. Mixed into water in a spray bottle, it works over bins, shoe racks and anywhere humidity has settled in.

It earns its place in the bedroom too, though in a different way. Lemongrass is sharp and awake rather than soothing, which makes it a morning oil rather than an evening one. Pair it with sweet orange for a brighter version, or with ginger for something warmer. If you want the same fresh-green character already blended into something you can wash with, the Spa Jerneh range is built on lemongrass, grapefruit and lime.

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