Essential oils are characterized by the presence of numerous compounds belonging to different chemical classes, with a variety of key aroma compounds being present at different concentration levels.
Gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is often employed for their analysis, however resolution is not sufficient to unravel such elevated complexity.
Detailed characterization remains challenging at best, in particular for the determination of low-level compounds potentially significant for their impact on sensory properties.
Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) offers significantly enhanced separation power and superior peak capacity.
It can therefore play a strategic role to tackle high complexity with elevated degree of detail.
In this study GC×GC, combined with the additional dimension added by MS data, was employed for untargeted profiling of chemical composition of rosemary and lavender leaf essential oil.