Abstract

The aims of the present study were to analyze the chemical compositions of volatile matter in simethicone crude drug qualitatively and quantitatively. Gas chromatography-mass spectrum (GC-MS) method was used for the separation and determination of the volatile matter in simethicone. The qualitative analysis of volatile matter components in simethicone with the viscosity of 500-centistokes (cs) was studied by GC-MS, through the interpretation of the mass spectrogram and investigation of the law of peaks. Area normalization method was used for preliminary quantitative analysis according to the GC spectrogram. The total content of volatile matter in simethicone was determined by loss on heating method. 42 components in the sample were identified in our study, which accounted for 99.21% of the total volatile matter content, including two sets of homologous compounds: 20 species of linear methylpolysiloxane (MD_mM, MM to MD₂₁M) and 22 species of cyclic methylpolysiloxane (D_n, D₃ to D₂₄). Our study offered scientific evidence for improving the production condition and controlling the quality of simethicone.

Key words: Simethicone, volatile matter, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).