Headspace gas chromatographic analysis of lemon balm
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17308/sorpchrom.2025.25/13570Keywords:
gas chromatography, headspace analysis, volatile components, melissa officinalis L., headspace spectra, terpenesAbstract
The study of medicinal plants is one of the important tasks of modern analytical chemistry and pharmaceutics. The main difficulty in their study is their variable and multicomponent composition. The method of static headspace analysis coupled with gas chromatography and flame ionization detection (HS-GC-FID) can facilitate the study of plant volatile components by simplifying the sample preparation procedure.
To identify and experimentally confirm the possibility of using HS-GC-FID for the determination of volatile components and authentication of herbal raw materials using lemon balm (Melissa officinalis L.) as an example.
Three samples of lemon balm of different origins were used as research objects. Chromatographic analysis was performed on a «Crystal 5000.2» gas chromatograph with a flame ionization detector. Separation was carried out on a quartz capillary column RTX-5 with a low-polarity 5% diphenyl-95% dimethylpolysiloxane stationary phase (30 m × 0.32 mm, df = 0.25 µm).
Chromatograms of the equilibrium vapor phase of the samples were obtained. Components were identified using literature data and the NIST 2.0 library. Specific markers of lemon balm were detected: β-citral and geranyl acetate, which, together with seven other non-specific markers (6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one, β-myrcene, citronellal, β-citral (neral), α-citral (geranial), geranyl acetate, β-caryophyllene), can be used for the identification of lemon balm raw materials. «Relative peak area – retention index» diagrams (headspace-spectra) of volatile compounds of lemon balm raw materials were constructed; these represent a unique cumulative profile of the plant, depending on the region of origin.
The obtained results confirm the possibility of using the HS-GC-FID method as an express method for the identification of herbal raw materials. The use of headspace spectra as an authenticity criterion will further allow the creation of a plant «fingerprint» database and further increase the speed of the HS-GC-FID method in the identification and authentication of herbal raw materials, up to the determination of the geographical origin of the sample.
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