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| Home > Essential Oil Info > About GC/MS Analysis |
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As Essential Oil Therapy is complex in its healing effects and is much more than smell, it takes much more than a nose to tell if an essential oil is pure. The only way to really substantiate the purity is to analyze the oil. More specifically to analyze it by Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS.) The GC/MS will tell you not just percentages of the many constituents of an oil, but directly identifies each constituent, natural or added. Then all this data is compared with previously run standards and extensive essential oil databases from other researchers.
How does the GC/MS work?
The GC/MS instrument is made up of two parts. The gas chromatography (GC) portion separates the chemical mixture into pulses of pure chemicals and the mass spectrometer (MS) identifies and quantifies the chemicals.
The GC separates chemicals based on their volatility, or ease with which they evaporate into a gas. It is similar to a running race where a group of people begin at the starting line, but as the race proceeds, the runners separate based on their speed. The chemicals in the mixture separate based on their volatility. In general, small molecules travel more quickly than larger molecules.
The MS is used to identify chemicals based on their structure. Let’s say after completing a puzzle, you accidentally drop it on the floor. Some parts of the puzzle remain attached together and some individual pieces break off completely. By looking at these various pieces, you are still able to get an idea of what the original puzzle looked like. This is very similar to the way that the mass spectrometer works.
Every A Scents Worth essential oil is analyzed by GC/MS to ensure that you are getting a pure high quality product.
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