CHEMOMETRIC STUDY OF SELECTED AGARWOOD OILS BY GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY–MASS SPECTROMETRY

Abstract

NOR AZAH MA, ISMAIL N, MAILINA J, TAIB MN, RAHIMAN MHF & MUHD HAFIZI Z. 2014. Chemometric study of selected agarwood oils by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Agarwood oils are concentrated volatile aromatic compounds mainly produced by the distillation of agarwood (Aquilaria spp.). Currently, grading of agarwood oil is done by trained personnel based on colour and odour. This technique is done manually and limited to sample repeatability. In this study, the chemical compositions of several selected agarwood oil samples were analysed by gas chromatography and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Their pattern recognition profiles were examined by chemometric analysis using principal component analysis (PCA). The samples were categorised into two groups according to their quality: group A (high quality) and group B (unknown quality). At least 43 chemical compounds were identified from both groups. From PCA, six significant compounds were obtained, i.e. 4-phenyl-2-butanone, α-guaiene, ar-curcumene, 10-epi-g-eudesmol, β-dihydroagarofuran and valencene. Correlation analysis revealed significant and high correlation between groups A and B. This is due to samples from group B showing similarity to major compounds found in group A.