The enantioselective and olfactometric analysis of vegetal volatile fractions in Ecuador

Abstract

Essential oils are natural products of biological and commercial interest, whose importance in the field of pharmaceutical chemistry, cosmetology and food chemistry is well known. The classical analysis of essential oils mainly consists in the application of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for the qualitative analysis, and gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-FID) for the quantitative one. However, chemical composition is not the only important aspect of an essential oil; a complete study requires also the determination of the enantiomeric composition of its chiral constituents. Furthermore, being the aroma the main property of most essential oils, an olfactometric study through gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O) technique should be important. Both the enantioselective analysis and the GC-O profile are yet quite neglected by most of the authors describing the chemical composition of new essential oils. The present communication describes the works published so far in Ecuador about these items.