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Abstract
Essential oil analysis has basically had one technical goal: to achieve the best possible
separation performance by using the most effective, available technology of the day.
The result achieved from this may then be used to answer the research or industrial
analysis questions which necessitated the analysis. This may be for comparative purposes,
where one oil is contrasted with other(s) for quality control or investigation of
adulteration, to discover new components, or to characterise the chemical classes
of compounds present. Clearly, today the analyst turns to chromatography as the provider
of separation and then may supplement that with mass spectrometry to aid identification.
The power of GC-MS means that advances in both the separation technique, and improvements
in mass spectrometry detection - along with improved data handling tools - will immediately
be relevant to the essential oil area. This present review outlines the developmental
nature of instrumental approaches to essential oil analysis using gas chromatography.
Mass spectrometry will be included to the extent that it represents the hyphenation
of choice for most analysts when analysing essential oils. Thus single-column and
multi-dimensional analysis will be covered, as will sample handling or introduction
techniques prior to the analysis step, where these techniques provide some measure
of separation. The recent demonstration of comprehensive gas chromatography will be
discussed as the potentially most powerful separation method for essential oils. This
brief review is not intended to be a comprehensive dissertation on the field of essential
oil analysis since that would require sufficient space to occupy a book in its own
right. Rather, it will outline selected considerations and developments, to help explain
where new technology has been applied to advantage in this field.