QUALITATIVE ASSAY OF ESSENTIAL OILS OF LAVENDER AND
PEPPERMINT IN COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS THROUGH SPECTRAL
AND CHROMATOGRAPHIC METHODS
SILVIA IMRE1, SIGRID EŞIANU1, AMALIA MIKLOS1*, IOANA TIUCA2, IONELA DICHER1, AMELIA TERO-VESCAN1, DANIELA-LUCIA MUNTEAN1, RADU OPREAN2
1University of Medicine and Pharmacy Tîrgu Mureş, Faculty of Pharmacy, 38 Gheorghe Marinescu Street, 540139, Târgu
Mureş, Romania
2“Iuliu Haţieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, 4 Pasteur Street, 400349, Cluj-Napoca,
Romania
*corresponding author: amalia.miklos@yahoo.com
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Abstract:
Essential oils are largely employed for their therapeutic properties, being marketed extensively in pharmaceutical and
cosmetic industry. The aim of our study was to assess the purity and quality of peppermint and lavender volatile oils,
available on the market, from various commercial producers. The methods used for testing the quality of these oils were
refractometry, polarimetry, thin layer and gas chromatography, which are official techniques in Pharmacopoeia
monographies of essential oils, and IR spectrometry, a non-official one. Following the analytical results, not all samples
proved to be of excellent quality and high purity, some of them being contaminated with other substances or even diluted.
Gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry and IR spectrometry methods had proved effective in assessing without
doubt the qualitative difference between samples, the other techniques remaining a fast alternative, although there are
limitations in terms of specificity and sensitivity.

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