An OI Analytical photometric detector has been used in the processing of spearmint oils to help address the volatility of sulphur compounds.
During the development of spearmint and other essential oils, analytical labs are challenged by volatile sulphur compounds, which impart undesirable odours to essential oils and have extremely low olfactory thresholds.
So the detecting, quantifying, and eliminating of sulphur compounds is an important aspect of flavour and fragrance quality control work.
Two species of spearmint are cultivated in the US every year, with 1.09 million kilograms of spearmint oil produced in the US in 2008.
45% of mint oil produced in the US is used to flavour chewing gum, and one 55-gallon drum of mint oil can flavour 5,200,000 sticks of gum or 400,000 tubes of toothpaste.
Essential oil companies and the labs that facilitate quality control work on their behalf require a rapid screening technique to detect and quantify volatile sulphur compounds.
An effective solution has been a gas chromatograph equipped with a 5380 PFPD pulsed flame detector from Xylem’s OI Analytical brand.
The PFPD sulphur chromatograms contained nine peaks. Five peaks were confirmed as sulphur peaks in the spearmint oil using the integration time gate function of the PFPD and WinPulse software, making the PFPD-equipped GC an effective solution against the challenging volatility of the sulphur compounds.
