GC/MS analysis is the key to understand essential oil adulteration and fragrance de-convolution. All analytical work is done by GC/MS, the instrument of choice for essential oil and fragrance analysis.
Essential Oil analysis for purity and quality:
- Non fragrant solvents.
- Parts of inexpensive essential oils.
- Synthetic “nature identical” essential oil components.
- Synthetic fragrance materials and their isomers.
- Synthesis by-products of nature identical and fragrance components.
- Fermentation products.
- Oxidation products.
- Fractional distillation.
- Other chemical treatment.
Quality
The GC/MS analysis is also used to determine quality. Plant quality, harvest and productions technique has a lot to do with quality. Environmental conditions also directly affect the percentages of each component of the essential oil. Botanical variety, chemo-type identification and origin are also a part of quality determination.
