Analytical characteristics of zedoary volatile oil by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry

The comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC x GC/TOFMS) was applied to investigate zedoary volatile oil. The separation power of GC x GC and GC, and identification power of GC x GC/TOFMS and GC/MS were compared under the same conditions. 87 peaks were achieved with GC, while about 500 peaks were resolved with GC x GC. In the meantime, GC x GC/TOFMS not only identified 227 peaks (much more than the peaks of 46 in GC), but also provided 3 kinds of orthogonal identification information that makes the result more reliable. All of these show that GC x GC/TOFMS is a powerful instrument in the analysis of volatile oil of traditional Chinese medicines