Chemical Profiling of Volatile and Non-Volatile Fractions of Galbanum (Ferula galbaniflua Boiss.) Used in Perfumery

Galbanum (Ferula galbaniflua Boiss.) is a valuable fragrance ingredient used in fine perfumery for its green, woody, balsamic, bell pepper, and foliage notes. The objective of the study was to identify and quantify the main compounds of this resinoid extract to gain a better knowledge of its chemical composition to support further ecotoxicology studies. For this purpose, the volatile fraction (VF) was first separated from the non-VF (NVF) by distillation under reduced pressure. The VF was then characterized by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and by GC with a flame ionization detector (GC-FID). β-Pinene was identified as the main compound of the fraction (25.0%) ahead of bulnesol (7.2%) and guaiol (6.9%). NVF was studied by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Major compounds were first targeted by HPLC coupled with MS (HPLC-MS), evaporative light scattering detector (HPLC-ELSD), and diode array detector (HPLC-DAD). It was then purified by semi-preparative HPLC in order to isolate and identify the main components by one and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance. Finally, they were quantified in the NVF and in the galbanum resinoid extract by external calibration. NVF was largely composed of sesquiterpene coumarin derivatives with galbanic acid (20.08 ± 0.13 mg/g), farnesiferol A (10.95 ± 0.02 mg/g), gummosin (5.50 ± 0.12 mg/g), and feselol (2.31 ± 0.02 mg/g) as the main compounds.