Usefulness of pyrolysis coupled to gas chromatography/mass spectrometry for evaluating the reproducibility of commercial samples of Cymbopogon citratus Stapf., Poaceae

The usefulness of pyrolysis coupled to gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) to evaluate the identity and reproducibility of different brands and batches of commercially available samples of Cymbopogon citratus Stapf (sold as tea) was investigated. Samples of the vegetable material were extracted using hexane and the extract was pyrolysed at 450 oC using a vertical microfurnace pyrolyser interfaced directly with a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer operated using electron impact ionization at 70 eV. The relative peak areas of the different compounds identified on the pyrograms were used for multivariate data analysis using principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) techniques. Principal component analysis of pyrolysis data from samples of different brands was able to represent 84.7% of the total variability within the first two principal components, and led to the correct classification of the samples tested. The method was also able to reveal important differences between samples when different batches of the same brand were compared.