Through oven transfer adsorption-desorption interface for the analysis of methyl jasmonate in aromatic samples by on-line RPLC-GC.

A fully automated method for the determination of medium volatility compounds in aromatic samples was developed. Specifically, the determination of methyl jasmonate in jasmine fragrances was performed by using the through oven transfer adsorption-desorption (TOTAD) interface for the on-line coupling between RPLC-GC. A study of the most relevant variables involved in the performance of the TOTAD interface for medium volatility compounds was carried out by testing different values of helium flow (100, 300, 400, and 500 mL/min), transfer speed (0.1, 0.3, 0.5, and 2.0 mL/min), and methanol/water percentages (86:14, 85:15, 83:17, 80:20, and 70:30). The method developed provided satisfactory repeatability (RSD for retention times of 0.15% and for peak areas of 9.4%) and recovery (71%) as well as excellent LOD (0.01 mg/L) for methyl jasmonate in commercial jasmine essence under the experimental conditions selected as optimum. Additional advantages of the automated RPLC-TOTAD-GC method proposed in the present work are its rapidness, reliability, and the possibility of directly introducing the sample with no further pretreatment.