Rapid analysis of essential oil from Fructus Amomi by pressurized hot water extraction followed by solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

In this paper, a simple, rapid, solvent-free and low-cost method of pressurized hot water extraction (PHWE) followed by headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was developed for the analysis of essential oil in a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) of the dried ripe fruit of Fructus Amomi (Sha Ren). The essential oil in the TCM (0.050 g) was extracted by water at 50 bar and 150 °C, followed by extraction and concentration by SPME fibers at 80 °C for15 min and analysis by GC-MS. The PHWE and HS-SPME parameters were optimized. Thirty-five compounds in the TCM were identified by PHWE-HS-SPME. Among them, camphor, an active compound, in the TCM samples was quantitatively analyzed. The proposed method required little time to prepare the sample. Moreover, little sample mass and no organic solvent was needed. The precision of the present method was found to be good (R.S.D. <10.0%). It is shown that PHWE-SPME-GC-MS is an alternative method for the determination of volatile components in TCMs and can be used as a powerful tool for TCM quality assessment.