200 research outputs found
Hydrophobic Natural Eutectic Solvents for the Gas Chromatographic Determination of Suspected Allergens in Fragrances by Dispersive Liquid-Liquid Microextraction
The fragrance industry plays a key role in the global economy, producing a wide range of personal care and household products. However, some fragrance ingredients have been linked to allergic reactions in sensitive people, and their concentrations are regulated at the European level. For this reason, reliable, rapid, and sustainable analytical methods are needed to rapidly detect and quantify these compounds. Recently, a new class of hydrophobic eutectic solvents (HES) has been introduced; they consist of natural terpenoids or phenolic compounds that can be used as hydrogen bond donors (HBD) and acceptors (HBA), and they are more suitable for GC applications due to their higher volatility. In this study, a dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME) approach is proposed for the analysis and quantification of a range of allergens in hydroalcoholic perfumes. The optimized method requires only 50 µL of a natural HES (thymol–eugenol), which is readily dispersed by vortexing in 2 mL of sample. After centrifugation, the HES rich phase is diluted in 400 µL EtOH and directly injected into the GC-FID system. The proposed method has been successfully applied in the analysis and quantification of commercial fragrances, demonstrating good enrichment of target allergens and suitability for aqueous matrices analysis
Strategies for Accurate Quantitation of Volatiles from Foods and Plant-Origin Materials: A Challenging Task
The volatile fraction
of foods and of plant-origin materials provides
functional information on sample-related variables, and gas-phase
extractions are ideal approaches for its accurate chemical characterization.
However, for gas-phase sampling, the usual procedures adopted to standardize
results from solvent extraction methods are not appropriate: headspace
(HS) composition depends on the intrinsic physicochemical analyte
properties (volatility, polarity, partition coefficient(s)) and matrix
effects. Method development, design, and expression of the results
are therefore challenging. This review article focuses on volatile
vapor-phase quantitation methods (internal standard normalization,
standard addition, stable isotope dilution assay, multiple headspace
extraction) and their suitability in different applications. Because
of the analyte informative role, the different ways of expressing
results (normalized chromatographic area, percent normalized chromatographic
areas, and absolute concentrations) are discussed and critically evaluated
with examples of quality markers in chamomile, process contaminants
(furan and 2-methylfuran) in roasted coffee, and key-aroma compounds
from high-quality cocoa
- …