A useful quality control using herbal volatiles of Artemisia princeps Pamp. cv. ssajuari (ssajuari-ssuk; Korean mugwort) according to air-drying time by fast gas chromatography with uncoated surface acoustic wave sensor (Electronic zNose).

INTRODUCTION

Korean mugwort has been used as a traditional medicine. Specifically, air-dried Artemisia princeps Pamp. cv. ssajuari (ssajuari-ssuk; Korean mugwort) has been used as moxa in moxibustion therapy. Thus, the evaluation of high quality ssajuari-ssuk containing herbal volatiles is of great interest in clinical therapy and the food industry.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study is to determine whether fast gas chromatography with uncoated surface acoustic wave (fast GC/SAW) sensor can be a useful technique for performing quality control using herbal volatiles of ssajuari-ssuk air-dried for different times.

METHODOLOGY

Fast GC/SAW sensor, called "Electronic zNose", is also a headspace sampling method and is an effective simple analytical method with a second unit analysis providing on-line measurements without the need for pretreatment of the sample. Headspace solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) was employed to confirm the identification of the volatiles and compared to fast GC/SAW sensor.

RESULTS

Artemisia princeps Pamp. cv. ssajuari air-dried for 2 years and 4 months (the third year), containing the highest total amount of herbal volatiles, was superior to the others (the first year, the second year, the fourth year) in quality. Moreover, fast GC/SAW sensor shows a high repeatability (relative standard deviation 0.77% ∼ 6.23%), excellent sensitivity (limit of detection value of 0.47 pg/mL), and good linearity (correlation coefficient r = 0.997) over the range of nanogram for α-thujone.

CONCLUSION

Therefore, the fast GC/SAW sensor can be a useful analytical method for the discrimination and quality control of volatiles of herbal and medicinal plants according to air-drying time, as it provides a simple and second unit analysis.