Determination of Essential Oils in Commercial Lavender Oil

Essential oils are largely employed for their therapeutic properties, being marketed extensively in

pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry. Lavender oil is known for its excellent aroma and is extensively used

in the perfumery, flavour and cosmetic industries. The oil is known to possess sedative, carminative,

antidepressive and antiinflammatory properties.1

The aim of our study was to assess the purity and quality of lavender oils, available on the market from

various commercial producers. Therefore, essential oil compositions of lavender oil were analyzed using gas

chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Chromatographic analyses were carried out on an Agilent

7820A gas chromatography system equipped with 5977 series mass selective detector, 7673 series

autosampler and ChemStation. HP-5 MS column with 0.25 μm film thickness (30 m × 0.25 mm I.D.) was used

for separation. The temperatures of the inlet, transfer line and detector were 250, 250 and 300 °C,

respectively. Different temperature programs were investigated for GC-MS method.

The end of this investigation, the temperature program of the GC-MS was as follows: initial temperature was

60 °C, held for 10 min, increased to 220 °C at a rate of 4 °C/min held for 10 min, increased to 240 °C at a rate

of 1.0 °C/min held for 0 min. The injector volume was 1 µL in split mode (40:1) and the carrier gas was helium

at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min.

Thirty-three chemical essential constituents were identified based on GC-MS in lavender oil supplied from

herbalist. The components were identified by comparing linear Kovats retention index, their retention times

and mass spectra with those obtained from the MS library. The major components of the lavender oil were

linalyl acetate (37.82 %), linalool (33.07 %), eucalyptol (4.88 %), camphor (4.07 %), lavandulol acetate (1.53

%) and caryophyllene (1.43 %).