Sunita Singh
The basic technical goal of essential oil is 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, to discover new components, or to characterize 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 Gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (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. The developmental nature of instrumental approaches to essential oil analysis using gas chromatography- mass spectrometry represents the hyphenation of choice for most analysts when analysing essential oils. The recent demonstration of comprehensive gas chromatography is also a powerful tool for the separation of different components present in essential oils. Whatever the future holds, it can be reasonably assured that these chromatographic techniques will hold many surprises and much value in respect of new information related to composition of essential oils
