Objective: To analyse the chemical components of the essential oil of Gum olibanum somalilnds and Gum olibanum Ethiopia, and to set up determination methods of their main components.
Method: Two kinds of essential oil are identified by GC-MS, and assayed by Gas chromatography, using SE-54 as the packing material (column 2.1 m x 3.2 mm), with column temperature starting from 80 degrees C, holding for 1 min, and then rising at the rate of 15 degrees C per minute to 170 degrees C.
Result: 40 kinds of chemical compounds in the essential oil of Gum olibanum somalilnds and 22 kinds of those of Gum olibanum Ethiopia were identified by GC-MS, the main component in the essential oil of Gum olibanum somalilnds being alpha-pinene, and the main one of Gum olibanum Ethiopia being Octyl acetate 17 batches of samples were determined with the linear range of alpha-pinene being 0-10.80 micrograms, the correlation coefficient being 0.9995, the recovery being 98.16%, RSD being 1.83%; the linear range of Octyl acetate being 0-10.32 micrograms, the correlation coefficient being 0.9996, the recovery being 99.56%, and RSD being 1.36%.
Conclusion: This study can be used for the setting up of the specification of Olibanum.