Evaluation and optimization of the automatic thermal desorption method in the gas chromatographic determination of plant volatile compounds

Abstract

The automatic thermal desorption (ATD) method was used in the gas chromatographic determination of the volatile components of plants. The reproducibility of the method was evaluated for several operating conditions; the results were better than those obtained with other sample preparation methods (simultaneous distillation-extraction and solvent extraction). Some applications of the ATD method in the gas chromatographic determination of volatile components of Umbelliferae seeds are also presented, including the determination of the enantiomeric forms of limonene.