303 Potrero Street, #7
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Ph: 831-427-9336
Spectrix
Fax: 831-466-0471
THE MASS SPEC KNOWS
Email:
larry@spectrixlab.com
Spectrix is an independent commercial lab that specializes in GC/MS (Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry)
analysis of essential oils, hydrosols, wine, fragrances and flavors for individuals and companies. Spectrix was
founded in 1991 by its owner Lawrence Jones and President of Elizabeth Van Buren Inc. Spectrix is also the Q.C.
lab for Elizabeth Van Buren, which is the first and only Aromatherapy Company to do GC/MS analysis of each lot
of essential oils for purity and quality.
Methods: The lab and instrumentation are devoted to and optimized for the analysis of essential oils in determining
their purity and quality for therapeutic use. All analytical work is done by GC/MS, the instrument of choice for
essential oil research. A Gas Chromatograph (GC) used by most labs gives only a two dimensional analysis,
whereas our GC/MS gives a three-dimensional analysis, allowing direct identification of essential oil constituents
and percentages.
Spectrix GC/MS instrumentation:
• Hewlett-Packard 5970B Mass Spec with Smart Card II and modified to 5972 specifications.
• Hewlett-Packard 5890 II Gas Chromatograph. Auto sampler equipped.
• Varian Saturn II Mass Spec with Varian 3400 Gas Chromatograph
• Data systems: Hewlett-Packard MS ChemStation including compound search libraries: NIST98, Wiley275,
Essential Oil 2006, Wiley flavor and Spectrix essential oil constituents and fragrance search libraries.
• Other data bases:
Basics 2000 with over 3,500 essential oil analysis reports and Basics fragrance chemical library
In house analysis of over 2,500 essential oils
Allured Fragrance Materials Data Base
Sleuthing out purity and quality: A pure essential oil is one that is distilled or extracted from a single
botanical variety. Nothing added or taken away. Some producers, importers and distributors may alter the
oils to standardize their product and/or to make a larger profit. Many oils labeled "100% pure" are not.
Even "certified organic" oils may not be pure. Essential oils for aromatherapy have to be thoroughly
analyzed regularly, batch by batch for purity and quality, even if the oil is coming directly from a known
source. Spectrix analyses for:
1) Purity
• Non fragrant solvents • Synthetic fragrance materials and their isomers
• Cut with inexpensive essential oils • Carrier oils
• Synthetic essential oil ‘nature identicals’ • Oxidation products
2) Quality
Many essential oils may test pure but are low quality or the wrong chemotype. Botanical variety, chemotype
identification and origin are a part of quality determination. Organic Certification is not a quality that can be
practically measured and may not mean the essential oil is pure and/or high quality. Analysis is the only way to
know. Spectrix screens for pesticide and other chemicals residue down to 0.005%, but most of these agents are
in the parts per million or billion range.
3) Organolyptytic
All oils pass through a “sniffing” panel to verify there are no still notes or off odor constituents.
This information has been provided to help you understand the great extent Spectrix Lab goes to in assuring
you, the customer, the value, safety and effectiveness of Elizabeth Van Buren therapeutic grade essential oils.
Lawrence Jones, Analyst and owner, Spectrix Lab.
Rev2008a
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