Quantification of the Geranium Essential Oil, Palmarosa Essential Oil and Phenylethyl Alcohol in Rosa damascena Essential Oil Using ATR-FTIR Spectroscopy Combined with Chemometrics

Rosa damascena essential oil is an essential oil that has the greatest industrial importance due to its unique quality properties. The study used ATR-FTIR (attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared) spectroscopy coupled with chemometrics of PLSR (partial least squares regression) and PCR (principal component regression) for quantification of probable adulterants of geranium essential oil (GEO), palmarosa essential oil (PEO) and phenyl ethyl alcohol (PEOH). Hierarchical cluster analysis was performed to observe the classification pattern of Rosa damascena essential oil, spiked samples and adulterants. Rosa damascena essential oil was spiked with each adulterant at concentrations of 0–100% (v/v). Excellent R(2) (regression coefficient) values (≥0.96) were obtained in all PLSR and PCR cross-validation models. The SECV (standard error of cross-validation) values ranged between 0.43 and 4.15. The lowest SECV and bias values were observed in the PLSR and PCR models, which were built by using the raw FTIR spectra of all samples. Hierarchical cluster analysis through Ward’s algorithm and Euclidian distance had high potential to observe the classification pattern of all adulterated and authentic samples. In conclusion, the combination of ATR-FTIR spectroscopy with multivariate analysis can be used for rapid, cost-effective, easy, reliable and high-throughput detection of GEO, PEO and PEOH in Rosa damascena essential oil.