Essential Oils Investigation: A Great Way to Spend Thursday Afternoons
Location
CoLab
Start Date
3-5-2019 10:30 AM
End Date
3-5-2019 11:45 AM
Document Type
Poster
Description
My project is an investigation of essential oils. Part one of the project was to determine whether or not the gas chromatography mass spectrometer codes stamped on the bottles of essential oils from the company DoTerra were an accurate assessment of the oil’s molecular content. We ran a small sampling of oils through the mass spectrometer in a JCCC lab and compared our data to what is posted online on DoTerra’s website corresponding to the code on the bottle. After verifying the accuracy of the oil’s contents, we moved on to part two of the project. For the second part, we focused on lavender oil specifically. We sampled two other brands of essential oils in the mass spectrometer to compare results to DoTerra’s online results and our own results for the DoTerra brand to determine if there were any discrepancies. We also used steam distillation and a lavender plant to make our own lavender essential oil as a control sample to run through the mass spec. Future research could include more brands of lavender oil and/ or more flavors from DoTerra.
Image
Essential Oils Investigation: A Great Way to Spend Thursday Afternoons
CoLab
My project is an investigation of essential oils. Part one of the project was to determine whether or not the gas chromatography mass spectrometer codes stamped on the bottles of essential oils from the company DoTerra were an accurate assessment of the oil’s molecular content. We ran a small sampling of oils through the mass spectrometer in a JCCC lab and compared our data to what is posted online on DoTerra’s website corresponding to the code on the bottle. After verifying the accuracy of the oil’s contents, we moved on to part two of the project. For the second part, we focused on lavender oil specifically. We sampled two other brands of essential oils in the mass spectrometer to compare results to DoTerra’s online results and our own results for the DoTerra brand to determine if there were any discrepancies. We also used steam distillation and a lavender plant to make our own lavender essential oil as a control sample to run through the mass spec. Future research could include more brands of lavender oil and/ or more flavors from DoTerra.
Comments
The faculty supervisor for this project was Barry Herron, Chemistry.