Differential evaporation of aromatherapy mint oils

作者：Francis George W^*; Stusdal Turid Kleiveland

来源：Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health, 2014, 7(4): 481-487.

DOI：10.1007/s11869-014-0245-z

• Differential evaporation
• Essential oil
• Mentha
• Aromatherapy
• GC-MS

Essential oils have found many %26quot;air improvement%26quot; applications including their use in air fresheners and a variety of toiletry products, in addition to their use in aromatherapy where these oils play a central role. The efficacy of aromatherapy remains controversial. It is thus surprising that the extent to which differential evaporation might affect the results seems to have been largely ignored. In order to investigate the possible extent of this phenomenon, mint oils have been subjected to forced evaporation at room temperature using a nitrogen stream. The compositions of the oils were determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry prior to evaporation and again when only 50 and 10 % of the oil remained. The changes in relative amounts of the various components clearly showed the extensive effects of differential evaporation. The components were removed depending on the functional groups and molecular weights of the individual compounds involved. Thus for compounds with approximately the same molecular weights, removal occurs in the order hydrocarbons, ketones and aldehydes, and alcohols. Sesquiterpenes and minor amounts of esters were retained as minor components even after 90 % of the material had evaporated. The possible implication of these changes for the use of the oils in aromatherapy is considered.

• 出版日期2014-12