A Rapid, Robust and Sensitive Analysis of Tea Tree Essential Oil Quality by GC-TOFMS with Hydrogen as Carrier Gas

Significance of the topic

Tea tree essential oil is valued for antimicrobial antifungal anti inflammatory antioxidant and antiviral properties making it important in cosmetics pharmaceuticals food and cleaning formulations
Quality assurance requires precise profiling of terpene components according to ISO 4730 to ensure authenticity provenance and biological activity including minor constituents that deter adulteration

Objectives and overview of study

The aim was to transfer a fast GC TOFMS method from helium to hydrogen carrier gas using the EZGC method translator in five steps
The study evaluated reductions in analysis time while maintaining chromatographic resolution spectral quality and sensitivity for key tea tree oil terpenes

Methodology

A commercial tea tree oil sample was diluted 100 fold in hexane and C7 C30 n alkane standards were prepared at 10 ppm for linear retention index calculation
Initial helium method used a 30 m x 0 25 mm Rxi 5Sil MS column at 1 4 mL min carrier flow and a 8 5 degC per min temperature ramp to 330 degC
Optimized hydrogen method employed a 15 m x 0 15 mm column at 1 05 mL min flow and a 40 degC per min ramp to 330 degC
Five translation and optimization steps were monitored using globulol elution time as a reference point
Data processing included automated deconvolution retention index matching and library based compound identification

Used instrumentation

• Gas chromatograph Agilent 7890 with helium or hydrogen supply
• GC column Rxi 5Sil MS of specified dimensions and coating thickness
• Time of flight mass spectrometer LECO Pegasus BT with ion source at 250 degC mass range 40 400 m z and acquisition rate 30 spectra per second

Main results and discussion

Transition to hydrogen reduced globulol elution from 16 03 to 3 54 minutes corresponding to a 78 percent run time reduction
Chromatographic resolution between limonene and eucalyptol decreased by only about 12 percent
Average library match score improved from 885 to 894 and sensitivity increased by approximately 40 percent
Signal to noise ratio for low abundance viridiflorol increased from 92 to 132 without loss of spectral quality
Fast screening of degradation products such as caryophyllene oxide demonstrated high speed automated quantification capabilities

Benefits and practical applications of the method

The hydrogen based fast GC TOFMS approach offers a fivefold throughput increase and lower operational costs
Maintained or enhanced resolution sensitivity and data quality make it ideal for high throughput quality control and fingerprinting of essential oils

Future trends and potential applications

Adoption of hydrogen as a sustainable carrier gas across GC TOFMS workflows
Integration into automated high throughput quality screening and production monitoring in food cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries
Expansion of fast profiling methods to other essential oils and complex botanical extracts
Further automation and AI assisted data interpretation to enhance routine laboratory efficiency

Conclusion

Fast method transfer from helium to hydrogen on the LECO Pegasus BT GC TOFMS delivers robust sensitive and rapid analysis of tea tree oil terpenes with minimal compromise to chromatographic resolution or spectral quality enabling efficient quality control workflows

Reference

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4. Burt S 2004 Essential oils their antibacterial properties and potential applications in foods a review International Journal of Food Microbiology 94 3 223 253
5. Bakkali F Averbeck S Averbeck D Idaomar M 2008 Biological effects of essential oils a review Food and Chemical Toxicology 46 2 446 475