Authentication of Essential Oils through Chiral GCMS
Essential oils are one of the growing commodity markets in the flavor fragrance and aromatherapy sector. Its demand is increasing since it has fewer side effects than synthetic medicines. Unfortunately, due to a lack of reliable instrumental techniques and strict government regulation, adulteration of natural products is rampant worldwide: adulteration impacts the therapeutic values of oils and a country’s economy. Tentatively 80% of commercially available, so-called “natural” essential oils are adulterated somehow.
Chiral GCMS is one of the most useful and practical applications for the authentication of essential oils. Plants of the specific species from any origins produce the same enantiomeric ratios, which is a crucial indicator of authentication in essential oils. For example, lavender has 95% L linalool, whereas coriander has 84% D linalool, citrus has 99% D limonene, fir needle has 100% L-limonene. Even being the same physicochemical properties, they have distinctly different biological and organoleptic properties. The enantiomer of the same molecule at the same time can be harmless as well as toxic. A chiral GCMS analysis helps detect other species mixing or nature-identical synthetic compound addition in essential oils.
Our panel will host a Q&A session after the presentation to address any questions or comments.
Presenter: Prabodh Satyal, Ph.D. (Chief Scientific Officer, Aromatic Plant Research Center (APRC))
Prabodh Satyal, Ph.D. is the Chief Scientific Officer of Aromatic Plant Research Center (APRC). He is originally from Nepal and moved to the United States to pursue research in essential oils at the University of Alabama Huntsville, where he received his MS, Ph.D., and post-doctoral studies in essential oil research. Dr. Satyal has studied the chemical composition of more than thirty thousand essential oils from various parts of the world, has published more than a hundred research articles in peer-reviewed journals, and has been a quality analyst (serving in several positions) for nearly ten years. He is an editorial member of several journals. Dr. S has a special interest in essential oil adulteration detection using marker-based analysis and has created the only known mass spectral library of synthetic markers. He has played a significant role in establishing several essential oil databases and has spoken at dozens of reputable international conferences. He also has research collaboration on several world-renowned universities for EO research and currently supervising Ph.D., MPhil, and Masters level students on their research. He is currently developing the first-ever fully automated adulteration analysis software for GCMS that will identify the percentage of purity, origin, and mixed sources in essential oils.
Presenter: Dr. Eberhardt Kuhn (Marketing Manager for Food and Consumer Products, Shimadzu)
Dr. Eberhardt Kuhn is the Marketing Manager for Food and Consumer Products at Shimadzu Scientific Instruments. He is a renowned chromatographer with over 30 years of experience in this field at companies like Agilent, Restek, and Bio-Rad. Dr. Kuhn has presented talks at conferences and events in over 30 countries. His expertise is the field of chromatographic separations, column chemistry, and scientific instrumental analysis of food, including determination and identification of contaminants, like pesticides or heavy metals, food quality, e.g., fusel alcohols in alcoholic beverages, and analytical method development, e.g., antibiotics in honey and acrylamide in fried foods. His recent interests include food contamination from Food Contact Materials, such as PFAS, and detection of food adulteration and confirmation of food authenticity.
