Analysis of the volatile organic compounds in Cinnamomum cassia bark by direct sample introduction thermal desorption gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

Abstract

A thermal desorption method with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (TD–GC–MS) analysis was developed to directly profile the volatile organic compounds in Cinnamomum cassia(C. cassia) for the first time. The GC–MS conditions were optimized and internal electron ionization (EI) was used as the ionization method. The peaks were identified by comparing the obtained EI mass spectra with those of standard EI mass spectra in the National Institute of Standards and Technology mass spectral library. The relative contents of the volatile compounds were estimated by comparing the relative peak areas. Nine volatile organic compounds were identified and quantified. Cinnamaldehyde (E) was detected as the main compound in C. cassia and its relative content among the volatile components is estimated to be 72.7%. This developed method was compared with traditional hydrodistillation using a Clevenger-type apparatus for extraction prior to GC–MS analysis. The results shown that the total ion chromatogram (TIC) of TD–GC–MS was very similar to that of traditional solvent extraction–GC–MS. The newly developed method is faster and less labor-intensive than the traditional hydrodistillation method, and because organic solvents are not consumed, it is more environmentally friendly.

Keywords:

• thermal desorption–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry
• volatile oil
• Cinnamomum cassia

Acknowledgement

This project was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Lanzhou University (lzujbky-2011-93) and the Foundation of Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory for Interventional Medical Devices, Jiangsu Province, China (No. jr1209).