Supercritical fluid extraction--achiral liquid chromatography with circular dichroism detection for the determination of menthone enantiomers in natural peppermint oil samples.

A simple and enantioselective method for the determination of menthone enantiomers in peppermint essential oil samples is proposed. The method involves the initial supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) to clean-up and extraction of analytes and their preconcentration on C(18) adsorption cartridges followed by achiral liquid chromatographic separation and direct circular dichroism (CD) detection. The calibration curve of the anisotropy factor (g) versus the enantiomeric excess was linear, with a correlation coefficient (R(2)) of 0.9970. The precision evaluated by UV peak area and CD peak area was suitable both in terms of intra- and inter-day precision (RSD<5.1% in all cases). The usefulness of the proposed method was demonstrated by analyzing natural and spiked peppermint oil samples. This method has the advantages of being rapid and precise without using an expensive chiral column. It was demonstrated to be suitable for the simultaneous determination of both enantiomers and for assessing the chemical purity of menthone.