It’s that time of year again, when holiday songs play 24/7 on the radio and people start wondering what, exactly, frankincense and myrrh are and why they make good gifts. LECO placed these two oils in a Pegasus® BT 4D to see the difference.
Frankincense (from the boswellia tree) and myrrh (from the commiphora tree) are both resins which are commonly used as perfumes and incense and have been for thousands of years. Essential oils extracted from these resins can be analyzed using gas chromatography, which is precisely what the scientists at LECO did.
By extending the analysis to a second dimension using the GCxGC analysis of the Pegasus BT 4D, even more information can be gleaned from the samples extracted from these substances. GCxGC analysis also inherently produces structured chromatograms where chemically similar analytes tend to elute in ordered bands through the GCxGC separation space. This provides context for identification and allows for rapid visual characterization of the compound classes.
Read a detailed breakdown of the analysis of these oils and how the GCxGC separation provides a huge advantage in the characterization and comparison of these samples.
