Identification of Adulterated Natural Ginger Oil Using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

A rapid and sensitive method was proposed for the identification of ginger oil adulterated with soybean oil using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(GC-MS). The method was based on the identification of the characteristic components including methyl palmitate, methyl linoleate, methyl oleate and methyl stearate in soybean oil by GC-MS after ginger oil sample was derivatized by methyl ester. The necessity of derivatization with methyl ester was discussed, and the GC-MS chromatograms for pure ginger oil and adulterated one were compared before and after methyl ester derivation. The results showed that the minimum content of 1% soybean oil in ginger oil could be detected according to the characteristic peaks of soybean oil. Being sensitive and reliable, the proposed method can provide an effective technique for the quality control of ginger oil.