Analysis of bitter essential oils from orange and grapefruit by high-performance liquid chromatography with microbore columns.

The analysis of bitter orange and grapefruit essential oils (non-volatile fraction) was carried out by HPLC in normal- and reversed-phase mode with UV detection. These oils were compared with the sweet orange and mandarin essential oils, analyzed previously. For the identification of chromatographic peaks, fractionation by RP-HPLC was carried out. The purified fractions were analyzed by GC-MS and LC-MS. Some new compounds were found, together with many others already identified in different citrus essential oils.