Using Gas Chromatography–mass Spectrometry in Conjunction with Chemometrics Technique for Characterization of Iranian Essential Oils Myrtus communis L.

Abstract

Myrtus communis L. essential oils were extracted by simultaneous distillation extraction method and studied with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). The obtained mass spectra were investigated by searching in NIST library, and 54 components were identified, but due to several problems such as varying baseline due to column bleed, low signal-to-noise ratio of peaks, and co-elution, some of components did not have satisfactory match factors. Chemometric resolution techniques were used to resolve these problems. The number of identified components was expanded to 67 using combination of GC–MS with resolution technique. In addition, the presence of worthful components such as α-Pinene (36.19%), 1,8-Cineole (11.44%), d-Limonene (10.04%), Linalool (7.76%), α-Terpineol (5.51%), linalyl acetate (4.19%) and α-Terpineol acetate (2.61%) in Myrtle essential oils have been verified. The results of this study indicate that joining of hyphenated chromatographic methods and multivariate curve resolution techniques can be useful for comprehensive, rapid, and accurate analysis of complex natural product such as Iranian Myrtle essential oils.