On the genuineness of citrus essential oils. Part XLI. Italian bitter orange essential oil: Composition and detection of contamination and additions of oils and terpenes of sweet orange and of lemon

Abstract

AbstractThe composition of the volatile fraction of Italian bitter orange essential oil, carried out by LC, HRGC and GC–MS, is reported: 60 components have been identified. The results obtained are compared with those in the literature for Italian and Spanish bitter orange oils.Two methods are suggested which allows the detection of contamination or possible additions of terpenes and oils of sweet orange and of lemon to genuine bitter orange oil. One is based upon the content of δ‐3‐carene and the value of the ratios δ‐3‐carene/camphene and δ‐3‐carene/terpinolene which permits the detection of the additions of 5% of sweet orange terpenes and oils; the second is based upon the content of α‐terpinene and the value of the ratios α‐terpinene/camphene and α‐terpinene/cis‐β‐ocimene and allows the detection of the addition of even 3% of lemon terpenes and oils.