Analysis of Echinacea flower volatile constituents by HS-SPME-GC/MS using laboratory-prepared and commercial SPME fibers

HS-SPME-GC/MS has been widely used in herbs and spices for essential oil analysis. This paper reports on the utility of HS-SPME method for profiling of volatile compounds from Echinacea flower using commercial and laboratory-prepared SPME fibers, and additionally comparing the volatiles extracted from HD. For achieving optimum recovery of volatiles, SPME conditions (equilibrium time, extraction temperature and extraction time) were examined. The use of SPME method enhanced the detected volatiles (161 peaks) in comparison to HD method (90 peaks). The identified volatile in Echinacea as total was 92 whether identified by SPME or HD methods. The total of tentatively identified compounds including monoterpenes, monoterpenoids, sesquiterpenes, sesquiterpenoids and other hydrocarbons with HS-SPME method (83) was higher than HD method (59). Sesquiterpenic hydrocarbons were shown to be the main group within Echinacea by both methods. It is shown that the extraction efficiencies of polymeric ionic liquid based SPME fibers are comparable with commercial ones