New Strategies For The Improvement Of The Environmental Impact And Overall Performance Of The Sample Preparation For Challenging Fragrance Samples

Analysis of suspected allergenic, cross-contaminant and volatile marker compounds is routinely performed in fragrance quality control laboratories by GC-FID or GC-MS. Conventionally, direct injection of perfume samples is preferred because it is the faster approach and avoids sample preparation steps. However, this method cannot be applied to fragrances with high water content due to unavoidable addition of not volatile cosmetic agents such as solubilizers and emulsifying agents which would require more frequent maintenance of the instrument and could create problems in the chromatographic profile. Conventional sample preparation procedures require a high number of steps and consequently long time procedures, large volume of sample and toxic organic solvents, causing a negative environmental impact. In this work, innovative and more sustainable sample preparation methods for the analysis of volatile compounds in challenging fragrances with higher amount of water were proposed. Environmental impact of analytical methodologies was taken into account by removing or reducing the amount and the toxicity of extraction materials (sorbent and solvents) and samples used, but also decreasing the sample preparation and analysis time making the extraction process as easy and with lower steps as possible. Dispersive liquid-liquid extraction technique was miniaturized using a small amount of extraction solvent and sample, and organic solvents were replaced with natural compounds, characterized by simplicity of isolation and preparation and environmental friendliness [1]. Another interesting microextraction approach was based on the use of diatomaceous earth materials (a siliceous sedimentary rock originated from fossilized remains of a type of hard-shelled algae, diatoms), used to absorb water and additives from the samples, followed by the elution of the target analytes using water-immiscible and not toxic solvents [2]. Finally, in order to comprehensively evaluate the developed analytical methods in terms of environmental sustainability, analytical performance and productivity/costs, in this study a metric tool, based on the RGB (Red-Green-Blue) model, was developed and apply to quantitatively measure their overall performance [3]. References [1] G. Bechis, G. Mastellone, A. Marengo, B. Sgorbini, C. Cagliero, and P. Rubiolo, “Hydrophobic Natural Eutectic Solvents for the Gas Chromatographic Determination of Suspected Allergens in Fragrances by Dispersive Liquid-Liquid Microextraction,” Separations, vol. 9, no. 10, 2022, doi: 10.3390/separations9100318. [2] R. N. Rao, K. G. Prasad, K. V. S. Kumar, and B. Ramesh, “Diatomaceous earth supported liquid extraction and LC-MS/MS determination of elvitegravir and ritonavir in rat plasma: Application to a pharmacokinetic study,” Anal. Methods, vol. 5, no. 23, pp. 6693–6699, 2013, doi: 10.1039/c3ay41346b. [3] G. Bechis et al., “Assessing the environmental and overall performance of gas chromatographic analyses . Development of a comprehensive evaluation framework and application to routine chiral analyses of fragrances as a case study,” Sustain. Chem. Pharm., vol. 35, no. August, p. 101217, 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.scp.2023.101217.