Essential oils: the review of the methods for determining the authenticity and detecting adulteration

Abstract

Essential oils are the products of natural origin that find a wide variety of applications in various industries. The high cost, laboriousness of production and widespread use lead to the fact that they are often found falsified. The use of fake oils increases their danger to humans, and therefore the establishment of the authenticity of essential oils is of a great importance. In this review, the authors analyze the published works and normative documents on the issues of determining the authenticity and identification of falsification of the essential oils. The component composition of essential oils, its variability depending on the place of growth of the essential oil plant and the technology of oil separation are considered. The main methods of falsification of essential oils and the range of techniques used for the control of the authenticity of products are discussed. The authors analyze the literature and the regulatory framework governing the quality of essential oils, existing methods for determining their authenticity, and indicate the respective advantages and disadvantages. A particular attention is paid to the method of mass spectrometry of isotope ratios, as the most promising, due to the high accuracy and the possibility of using practically any type of oil for the research. The authors confirm the widespread use of the isotope ratio mass spectrometry method in practice with the specific examples and demonstrate the new capabilities of this method associated with the use of isotope profiling and combined isotope analysis methods, which is an indicator for any artificial processes that occur with essential oils as a result of falsification. Keywords: essential oils, component composition, falsification, authenticity, methods, chromatography, spectroscopy, isotope ratio mass spectrometry DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15826/analitika.2019.23.4.010 (Russian) I.V. Lapko 1 , Yu.U. B. Aksenova 1 , *O.V. Kuznecova 2 , S.V. Vasilevskij 1 , A.V. Aksenov 1 , V.F. Taranchenko 1 , A.M. Antohin 1 , A.A. Ihalajnen 1 1 Scientific Center «Signal», Bolshaya Olenya Street, 8, Moscow, 107014, Russsian Federation 2 Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry of Russian Academу of Sciences, Kosygina str., 19, Moscow, 119991, Russsian Federation