Fast-GC-conventional quadrupole mass spectrometry in essential oil analysis

This study reports on the compatibility of a conventional quadrupole MS (qMS) as detector for Fast-GC in terms of separation, identification, and quantitation when applied to the analysis of peppermint essential oil (e.o.), adopted as representative of this field. The influence of Fast-GC carried out on a 10 mx0.1 mm id narrow bore column with temperature programmes from 20 to 60 degrees C/min on the results of a qMS in total ion chromatograms (TIC) at different speeds (from 999 and 11 111 amu/s) and SIM modes was evaluated on ten differently abundant components characterizing peppermint e.o. Separation measure (S), peak capacity (n), and half height peak width were taken as separation parameters; match quality, number of scans per peak (NP), spectral skewing, and TIC area repeatability were used for identification. Quantitation was in SIM mode and NP, dwell time, SIM area repeatability and calibration curves, LOD, and LOQ of the selected components were measured. The results show that the peppermint e.o. markers can successfully be analysed qualitatively and quantitatively by F-GC-qMS up to temperature programmes of 60 degrees /min provided that a suitable scan speed is applied. Fast-GC-qMS reduces analysis time by a factor greater than ten and gives results that are qualitatively reliable and quantitatively comparable to those obtained by conventional GC-qMS.