Resumen de Investigating Terpenoid Constituents in Commercial Essential Oils to Learn and Practice GC–MS and Literature Research Skills
Students in an organic chemistry laboratory course performed a hands-on activity that involved terpenoid determination in commercial essential oils. During this activity, the students analyzed various commercial essential oils using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) to obtain the m/z values of several terpenes and terpenoids. Then the students compared their results with terpene profiles in literature references to draw their conclusions. The activity included (i) terpene and terpenoid analysis of experimental plant extracts, (ii) the selection of the GC–MS parameters, (iii) literature research relevant to terpenoid isolation and characterization, and (iv) the use of ChemDraw to draw natural terpene/terpenoid structures.
