Abstract

A market survey in Sudan indicated the growing trend of import of essential oils as crude raw materials or in a form of semi-finished or finished products and commodities. Quality control and assessment of the imported essential oils need to be promoted bearing in mind the research and development in this field. The main objectives of the present paper were to evaluate some of these imported essential oils namely: mint oil, clove oil and olibanum oil and to compare their physical and chemical properties with essential oils prepared from plants available in the local market. The essential oils were investigated according to international standard methods: hydrodistillation, thin layer chromatography, gas chromatography - mass spectroscopy and British Pharmacopoeia procedures. According to the results obtained, it was obvious that the physico-chemical properties and chemical composition of traded (imported) essential oils were different when compared with essential oils prepared from local plant samples and were not compatible with the international standards. Quality control and assessment of imported and locally produced essential oils should be promoted with regard to their uses in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, aromatherapy and food industries.

Key words: Essential oils, Sudanese market, quality control, gas chromatography - mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) analysis, adulteration.