The use of glass capillary columns for food and essential oil analysis

Foods and essential oils represent complex mixtures whose components frequently embrace a wide range of functional groups and volatilities. The analyst concerned with these products may be interested in overall separation or "fingerprinting," in correlating the amount of individual compounds with specific flavor notes, in the detection and measurement of specific substances such as nitrosamines or pesticides, or in following the progress of a biochemical reaction. Analytical speed and the sensitivity of the method may also be important, as well as the ability of reactive compounds to survive the analysis. Toward all of these goals, glass capillary gas chromatography offers distinct advantages.