Classification of extra virgin olive oils according to the protected designation of origin, olive variety and geographical origin

A headspace-mass spectrometry (HS-MS) coupling designed for the sensory characterization and classification of extra virgin olive oil on the basis of its protected designation of origin, olive variety and geographical origin is reported. The procedure involves the headspace generation and the direct injection of the homogenized gaseous phase into a mass spectrometer through a transfer line. The results obtained were chemometrically treated to achieve the best model capable of discriminating between the different olive oil categories. For this purpose, several procedures for variables selection, data pretreatments and unsupervised techniques were evaluated. In addition, K-nearest neighbor and soft independent modeling of class analogy algorithms were employed to the classification models building. Taking into account the prediction results obtained (ca. 87% of samples correctly classified and a specificity of ca. 97%), it can be concluded than the HS-MS coupling is, with an adequate chemometric treatment, an appropriate technique for routine control.     

Rapid determination of total trihalomethanes index in drinking water

A method for the rapid determination of total trihalomethanes (THMs) index in drinking water has been developed by using a headspace-mass spectrometry (HS-MS) system and partial least squares (PLS) multivariate regression approach. Due to the presence of residual amounts of chlorine and organic matter in the drinking water, the use of a quenching reagent in order to avoid THM generation during the sample manipulation is necessary. The optimization experiments revealed that ascorbic acid was the best quenching reagent compared with sodium thiosulfate and ammonium sulfate. The use of a classification chemometric technique as soft independent modeling of class analogy before the PLS regression improved the results obtained in the prediction of the total THMs index, lowering the relative standard error of prediction (RSEP) from 11.4% to lower than 6.0%. The results obtained by the proposed HS-MS method were compared with those provided by a conventional chromatographic method after analyzing 20 real drinking water samples. A good agreement in the results was observed and no systematic differences were found, which corroborates the good performance of the proposed method.     

Fast screening method for determining 2,4,6-trichloroanisole in wines using a headspace–mass spectrometry (HS–MS) system and multivariate calibration

The system based on coupling a headspace sampler to a mass spectrometer (HS-MS), which is considered one kind of electronic nose, is an emergent technique for ensuring and controlling quality in industry. It involves injecting the headspace of the sample into the ionization chamber of the mass spectrometer where the analytes are fragmented. The result is a complex mass spectrum for each sample analyzed. When several samples are analyzed the data matrix generated is processed with chemometric techniques to compare and classify the substances from their volatile composition, in other words, to compare and classify their flavor. So far, information from electronic nose applications has mainly been qualitative. In this paper we present a quantitative study that uses a multivariate calibration. We analyzed several white wines using HS-MS to determine 2,4,6-tricholoranisole (TCA). This is an off-flavor that is a serious problem for the wine industry. The method is simple because it does not require sample preparation, only addition of sodium chloride being necessary for sample conditioning. Also, it provides a fast screening (10 min/sample) of the quantity of TCA in wines at ultratrace (sub microg L(-1)) levels.     

基于主成分和支持向量机浓度参量同步荧光光谱油种鉴别

基于浓度参量同步荧光光谱技术,对不同溢油类型不同油源原油样品集、引入外扰相似油源样品集进行光谱数据采集,获取其浓度同步荧光光谱矩阵Concentration-Synchronous-Matrix-Fluorescence(CSMF),利用主成分分析方法对两套不同层次的原油相关样品集进行了多类分类识别。结果表明:主成分载荷图可以很好地反映各个原油相关样品在油源上的相似程度,结合支持向量机可以实现不同溢油类型及不同油源原油的准确分类,对于引入风化和海水外扰相似油源溢油样品集,两类分类区分的结果远远高于多类分类识别的结果。通过详细的主成分分析讨论,为溢油油种鉴别提供了一种利用多类分类识别,逐步缩减嫌疑样本数量,最后通过两两分类实现溢油样品准确识别的新思路。     

Solid-phase microextraction of hop volatiles. Potential use for determination and verification of hop varieties

The composition of hop essential oil is an important tool for evaluation of hop quality. As each hop variety has a typical essential oil pattern (fingerprint), hop oil analyses can be used to distinguish between hop varieties. The headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME) method as described in this contribution is a simple sample preparation technique and represents an alternative procedure for essential oil fingerprint determination. Different SPME parameters (extraction temperature, extraction time and sample mass) were studied and the results were compared with those obtained by the routine distillation method. It is shown that SPME results can be used for determination and verification of varieties grown in Slovenia by means of principal components analysis.     

Fast characterization of foodstuff by headspace mass spectrometry (HS-MS)

The field of the rapid characterization of products by HS-MS is reviewed. The general principle of HS-MS systems consists of introducing volatile components present in the HS of a sample without prior chromatographic separation into the ionization chamber of a mass spectrometer. The spectrum resulting from simultaneous ionization and fragmentation of the mixture of molecules introduced constitutes a “fingerprint” that is characteristic of the product being analyzed. Exploitation of this spectral information allows one determine the composition of the sample.     

Identification of structures of nitrogen-containing compounds in crude oils in conjunction with chemometric resolution

A universal method was established for the systematically structural identification of nitrogen-containing compounds in crude oils. Pre-fractionation of the non-hydrocarbons in a crude oil sample into 7 fractions was performed by di-adsorption column chromatography using neutral aluminum oxide and silica gel; subsequent high-resolution separation of individual components was achieved by using capillary column gas chromatography, and compound types were detected by mass spectrometer. The two-dimensional data from the compounds in the fractions were further resolved by a chemometric method to obtained the deconvoluted chromatogram and mass spectrum of every compound, and then, the nitrogen-containing compounds were identified in combination with the retention indices. This method could relieve the difficulty of classical analysis in identifying those species with very low contents or incompletely separation, particularly in the cases where the authentic standards were not available for addition into the unknown samples in order to reveal what indeed existed in them. The structures of 168 nitrogen-containing compounds in a crude oil sample were determined by this method with satisfactory results.     

Rapid screening of mixed edible oils and gutter oils by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry

Authentication of edible oils is a long-term issue in food safety, and becomes particularly important with the emergence and wide spread of gutter oils in recent years. Due to the very high analytical demand and diversity of gutter oils, a high throughput analytical method and a versatile strategy for authentication of mixed edible oils and gutter oils are highly desirable. In this study, an improved matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) method has been developed for direct analysis of edible oils. This method involved on-target sample loading, automatic data acquisition and simple data processing. MALDI-MS spectra with high quality and high reproducibility have been obtained using this method, and a preliminary spectral database of edible oils has been set up. The authenticity of an edible oil sample can be determined by comparing its MALDI-MS spectrum and principal component analysis (PCA) results with those of its labeled oil in the database. This method is simple and the whole process only takes several minutes for analysis of one oil sample. We demonstrated that the method was sensitive to change in oil compositions and can be used for measuring compositions of mixed oils. The capability of the method for determining mislabeling enables it for rapid screening of gutter oils since fraudulent mislabeling is a common feature of gutter oils.     

柴油烃族组成分布的GC-MS测定

应用GC－MS测定柴油烃族组成按沸点的分布，通过柱色 谱分离后的柴油饱和烃和芳烃组分分别进入气相色谱－质谱联用仪分析，采集其每一扫描的质谱图后，按ASTM－D2425方法计算其每一扫描的烃族组成，因为每一扫描与保留时间对应，所以可将两部分烃族组成加和后应用ASTM－D2887方法计算柴油烃族组成按沸点的分布规律；实验结果表明，该法与ASTM－D2887和ASTM－D2425的实验结果吻合，并能给出有关柴油烃族组成的详尽分布规律。     

一种简易同时蒸馏萃取方法用于八角茴香挥发油提取及其GC-MS分析

设计了一种简易同时蒸馏萃取(SSDE)装置并用于八角茴香挥发油提取及其气相色谱-质谱法(GC-MS)分析。 该装置由圆底烧瓶、恒压滴液漏斗和回流冷凝管构成。 通过对八角茴香挥发油组分的GC-MS分析,比较SSDE法和水蒸汽蒸馏提取法(HD)提取植物源挥发油的效果。 结果表明,SSDE法所得挥发油相对含量在0.1%以上的19种化合物占挥发油总量的98.84%(相对标准偏差(RSD)(n=3)均不大于5.59%,其中RSD﹤5%的17种化合物占鉴定组分89.5%。SSDE法和HD法挥发油平均收率分别为7.30%(RSD=2.37%(n=5))和6.67%(RSD=5.26%(n=5))。 SSDE法简便、快速,适用于八角茴香挥发油的提取。     

Determination of mercury in crude oil by in-situ thermal decomposition using a simple lab built system

A simple system based on thermal decomposition for the one step determination of mercury has been built. This system was applied to the analysis of crude oil and related products. Samples were directly introduced into the system without the use of chemicals and digestion procedures. After 4 min, matrices and mercury compounds were decomposed, and elemental mercury was collected on a gold sand trap, and then detected by atomic fluorescence spectroscopy (AFS). In principle, any sample can be analyzed by this method provided the sample can be introduced into the system quantitatively. The method detection limit was approximately 0.2 ng/g for 0.04 g of crude oil introduced to the system. Various other samples including, biological, environmental, and general merchandise have been analyzed. Results obtained have been compared with established traditional methods including radiochemical neutron activation analysis (RNAA). Good agreement of results between methods was found. Recoveries were close to 100% for certified reference materials. Results were independent of mercury species and sample types.     

Headspace-mass spectrometry determination of benzene, toluene and the mixture of ethylbenzene and xylene isomers in soil samples using chemometrics

A simple and fast method has been developed for the determination of benzene, toluene and the mixture of ethylbenzene and xylene isomers (BTEX) in soils. Samples were introduced in 10 mL standard glass vials of a headspace (HS) autosampler together with 150 μL of 2,6,10,14-tetramethylpentadecane, heated at 90 °C for 10 min and introduced in the mass spectrometer by using a transfer line heated at 250 °C as interface. The volatile fraction of samples was directly introduced into the source of the mass spectrometer which was scanned from m/z 75 to 110. A partial least squares (PLS) multivariate calibration approach based on a classical 3³ calibration model was build with mixtures of benzene, toluene and o-xylene in 2,6,10,14-tetramethylpentadecane for BTEX determination. Results obtained for BTEX analysis by HS-MS in different types of soil samples were comparables to those obtained by the reference HS-GC-MS procedure. So, the developed procedure allowed a fast identification and prediction of BTEX present in the samples without a prior chromatographic separation.     

GC-IMS技术结合化学计量学方法在食用植物油分类中的应用

建立了一种快速、无损分析食用植物油中挥发性有机物质的顶空进样/气相色谱-离子迁移谱(GC-IMS)联用方法。以芝麻油、菜籽油、山茶油共56个样品为研究对象,量取2 mL待测油样于标准样品瓶中,并用磁帽密封,直接进行GC-IMS分析检测。结果表明,基于GC-IMS三维谱中对应挥发性有机物质的特征峰强度可以有效表征不同类植物油的样品信息,选取对应三维谱中40个特征峰的强度作为变量,进行主成分(PCA)信息降维后,采用k最近邻(kNN)算法建立植物油种类的判别模型,训练集的识别率达到100%,预测集中仅有1个山茶油样品被误判成芝麻油样品,预测集的识别率达到94.44%。GC-IMS联用分析技术简单、快速、无损,可用于食用植物油等其他食品、农产品种类的快速分类识别。     

Ultrasonic nebulization extraction-heating gas flow transfer-headspace single drop microextraction of essential oil from pericarp of Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim

The ultrasonic nebulization extraction-heating gas flow transfer coupled with headspace single drop microextraction (UNE-HGFT-HS-SDME) was developed for the extraction of essential oil from Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim. The gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was applied to the determination of the constituents in the essential oil. The contents of the constituents from essential oil obtained by the proposed method were found to be more similar to those obtained by hydro-distillation (HD) than those obtained by ultrasonic nebulization extraction coupled with headspace single drop microextraction (UNE-HS-SDME). The heating gas flow was firstly used in the analysis of the essential oil to transfer the analytes from the headspace to the solvent microdrop. The relative standard deviations for determining the five major constituents were in the range from 1.5 to 6.7%. The proposed method is a fast, sensitive, low cost and small sample consumption method for the determination of the volatile and semivolatile constituents in the plant materials.     

Factors affecting signal intensity in headspace mass spectrometry for the determination of hydrocarbon pollution in beach sands

One of the main limitations to the use of direct coupling of headspace mass spectrometry (HS-MS) for the quantitative determination of analytes in a sample is related to factors affecting the signal intensity. The importance of strategies aimed at compensating this problem is considerable in the case of classification, and is indeed critical as regards the problems involved in quantification. This paper reports the effects of the different factors affecting HS-MS signal intensity in the quantification of the pollution of beach sands by hydrocarbons—the matrix effect, signal instability over time and nature of the different pollutants present in the polluted sands—and proposes possible solutions. Signal instability was solved by using a multiplicative calibration transfer algorithm. A three-factor Box–Behnken experimental design was used to study the matrix effect, mainly as regards the moisture of the samples, and the results are discussed.     

Programmed automation of modulator cold jet flow for comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatographic analysis of vacuum gas oils

A method is described for automating the regulation of cold jet flow of a comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatograph (GCxGC) configured with flame ionization detection. This new capability enables the routine automated separation, identification, and quantitation of hydrocarbon types in petroleum fractions extending into the vacuum gas oil (VGO) range (IBP-540 degrees C). Chromatographic data acquisition software is programmed to precisely change the rate of flow from the cold jet of a nitrogen cooled loop modulator of a GCxGC instrument during sample analysis. This provides for the proper modulation of sample compounds across a wider boiling range. The boiling point distribution of the GCxGC separation is shown to be consistent with high temperature simulated distillation results indicating recovery of higher boiling semi-volatile VGO sample components. GCxGC configured with time-of-flight mass spectrometry is used to determine the molecular identity of individual sample components and boundaries of different molecular types.     

Determination of metals in lubricating oils by flame atomic absorption spectrometry using a single-bore high-pressure pneumatic nebulizer

The behaviour of a single-bore high-pressure pneumatic nebulizer (SBHPPN) as a tool for the analysis of lubricating oils by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) was investigated. The effects of the sample oil content [from 10% to 100% (w/w) oil in 4-methylpentan-2-one, IBMK] and the carrier nature (IBMK and methanol) on the characteristics of the aerosols generated, on the analyte transport efficiency and on the analytical figures of merit in FAAS were studied. A pneumatic concentric nebulizer (PCN) was used for comparison. Increasing the oil content increases the viscosity of the sample. With the PCN this gives rise to coarser aerosols, making it impossible to nebulize samples with an oil content higher than 70% (w/w). Using the SBHPPN, the viscosity of the sample scarcely affects the characteristics of the primary aerosols. Hence, the SBHPPN is able, by using the appropriate carrier, to nebulize pure lubricating oils. Among the carriers tested, IBMK is the most advisable because it is fully miscible with all the oil samples. The SBHPPN provides higher sensitivities and lower limits of detection than the PCN. Compared with a method based on organic dilution, the use of the SBHPPN for the direct analysis of lubricating oils by FAAS makes it possible, in addition to increasing the analysis throughput, to detect elements at lower concentrations. Moreover, the SBHPPN provides similar results to those obtained using a previous acid digestion step.     

Determination of metals in heavy oil residues by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy

A method is proposed for the sample preparation of heavy oil residues characterized by viscosity of more than 700 mm²/sec at 100°C to study their elemental composition. It is shown that a wide range of elements can be determined in heavy oil residues by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (IC-AES) when the sample dissolved in an organic solvent is injected into the instrument. The optimal parameters for the determination of metals in heavy oil residues by ICP-AES are selected, including an organic solvent and the method of sample dilution. The results of elemental analysis of heavy residues of oils from Chernigovskoe, Shpakovskoe, and Samarskoe deposits are compared. The developed method for determining metals in heavy oil residues significantly reduces the analysis time and does not require complex sample preparation.     

Enhanced resolution of Mentha piperita volatile fraction using a novel medium‐polarity ionic liquid gas chromatography stationary phase

The evaluation of a novel medium‐polarity ionic‐liquid‐based gas chromatography column, SLB‐IL60, towards the analysis of a complex essential oil, namely, a peppermint essential oil sample, is reported. The SLB‐IL60 30 m column was subjected to bleeding measurements, by means of conventional gas chromatography with mass spectrometry. The SLB‐IL60 column was then evaluated in the analysis of pure standard compounds, chosen as typical constituents of peppermint essential oil. Resolution and peak symmetry (expressed as tailing factors at 10% of peak height) were measured and the results were compared to those obtained on the most widely used columns in such an application, namely a medium‐polarity [100% poly(ethyleneglycol)] stationary phase, and an apolar 5% diphenyl/95% dimethyl siloxane. The final part of the evaluation was dedicated to the gas chromatography with mass spectrometry analysis of a peppermint essential oil sample and again the data were compared to those obtained on the 100% poly(ethyleneglycol) and the 5% diphenyl/95% dimethyl siloxane phase. Linear retention indices were determined for all the identified components on the ionic liquid capillary.     

Determination of the oxidative stability of olive oil by use of a robotic station

A gravimetric method for the determination of the oxidative stability of olive oil based on the use of a robotic station for the monitoring of the oxygen absorbed by a sample subjected to heating under controlled working conditions is proposed. The method was developed in order to relieve the typically heavy work load of olive oil laboratories in winter. The results obtained were consistent with those provided by a well-established method (Rancimat), which the proposed method clearly surpasses in sample throughput (6 samples/batch vs 150 samples/batch).