A fast and selective gas liquid microextraction of semiochemicals for quantitative analysis in plants. (September 2020) - Zhao, Jinhua
Highlights: The gas liquid microextraction technique was applied in quantitative analysis of plant semiochemicals. Compared with common methods, the technique has distinct advantages in sample consumption and extraction time. The quantitative performance of the method was evaluated in recovery and linearity by seven common semiochemicals. The seven common semiochemicals in Thuja koraiensis Nakai were successfully quantified using the technique. Abstract: A trapping-based gas liquid microextraction (GLME) method coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS) was utilized to qualitatively and quantitatively characterize semiochemicals in plants. The main GLME extraction efficiency associated parameters (heating temperature and extraction time) were optimized. The results obtained from GLME process were compared with those of steam distillation and ultrasonic extraction, and the recovery, peak number and reproducibility were evaluated by using Thuja koraiensis Nakai as a representative plant. Furthermore, the quantitative performances of the GLME in terms of sample amount, recoveries of spiked standards and correlation were systematically evaluated using standard addition method, which gave a good quantitative ability for all the compounds with squares of correlation coefficient (r 2 ) of higher than 0.99. Finally, the contents of α-pinene, camphene, linalool, α-terpinenol, β-caryophyllene, α-caryophyllene, and totarol in Thuja koraiensis Nakai samples were quantified, and their concentrations (SD, n = 3) were; 0.65 (0.06), 0.62 (0.05), 4.12 (0.15), 0.99 (0.08), 1.11 (0.07), 0.63 (0.04), and 21.91 (0.25) μg g –1, respectively. It was demonstrated that GLME is a powerful sample preparation technique for quantitative and qualitative analysis of plant semiochemicals.