INVESTIGATION OF THE COMPOSITION OF PINUS PEUCE NEEDLE OIL BY GC-MS AND GC-GC-MS

Needles of the Macedonian Pine, Pinus peuce Griseb., a conifer growing in the Balkan mountains, were extracted by a Likens-Nickerson simulta neous distillation-solvent extraction device. The components of this e ssential oil were identified by the retention times obtained on two co lumns differing in polarity and by GC-MS. Because of the complex natur e of such plant extracts, a multidimensional GC method for enantiomer analysis, a multidimensional GC method for enantiomer analysis, using a non-chiral pre-column and a chiral main column has been developed. T he enantiomeric ratios of five monoterpene hydrocarbons were estimated by GC-GC and GC-GC-MS.