Analysis of Volatile Compounds from Bupleurum by Static Headspace-Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

A static headspace-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(SH-GC/MS)method was used to analysis volatile compounds from the six kinds of Bupleurum from different areas. The approach of mass spectrogram searching combining with retentive index comparing was used to identify compounds. Sixty compounds whose percentage is more than 0.2 % were identified from six medicines. The main compounds of these essences were acyclic aldehyde (25%-44%), terpene (8.1%-17.3%) and terpene derivatives (10.3%-37.1%). The relative standard derivation (RSD) of this method was in the range of 1.20%-7.02%. The method is useful in analyzing volatile compounds from Chinese Traditional Medicine.