1H NMR shows excellent promise to be utilized in the quality control and authentication of essential oils. In order to ascertain if benchtop NMR systems reveal adequate “1H spectral fingerprints” for this purpose we have run several hundred essential oils at 300 MHz (Varian Mercury-300 MVX by 1H, 13C, COSY, HETCOR, DEPT) as well as at 82.3 MHz (Picospin 80), 60 MHz (Aspect-60), and 42.5 MHz (Magritek Spinsolve). The results plainly show that the spectrometers all yield similar proton line-widths with the difference in field strength leading to different levels of spectral dispersion and resolution. Though each spectrum is different it can plainly be seen that they all contain the same information with varying degrees of overlap. Chemometric and database comparative methods are being developed to allow identification of various essential oils as well as screening and quantifying different levels of adulteration. The figures below show examples from 6 different essential oils showing spectra obtained from all 4 spectrometers and plotted in the normalized chemical shift scale (ppm) as well as the absolute frequency scale (Hz).
