A novel method has been proposed to determine residues of thymol and carvacrol in honey, by means of a headspace coupled to a gas chromatography-mass spectrometer. No sample treatment was required, since the samples were injected directly after selection of the optimal headspace operating conditions, in this case, an equilibration time of 7 min and temperatures of 150 °C, 170 °C, or 175 °C for the oven, loop, and transfer line, respectively. The chromatographic conditions were also optimized, with a ZB-WAX (60 m × 0.25 mm × 25 μm) column, the helium carrier gas at a flow rate of 1.1 mL/min, and a temperature program allowing baseline separation of both compounds in under 18 min. Thymol and carvacrol should be quantified in honey samples with matrix-matched standard calibration curves, although samples from rosemary and orange blossom, as well as those of multifloral and heather botanical origins, respectively, can be determined with the same calibration curves. Not only was the proposed method selective, but it was also accurate (relative standard deviation values under 6%) and sensitive (detection and quantification limits lower than 40 μg/kg). Several honey samples were analyzed, and thymol and carvacrol residues were found at low concentrations (quantification limit-97 μg/kg) in some cases.

提出了一种通过与气相色谱-质谱联用的顶空测定蜂蜜中百里香酚和香芹酚残留的新方法。不需要样品处理，因为样品是在选择最佳顶空操作条件后直接注入的，在这种情况下，平衡时间为7分钟，烤箱的温度为150°C，170°C或175°C，回路和传输线。还使用ZB-WAX（60 m×0.25 mm×25μm）色谱柱，流速为1.1 mL / min的氦载气和温度程序优化了色谱条件，从而可在18分钟 蜂蜜样品中的百里酚和香芹酚应与基质匹配的标准校准曲线定量，尽管迷迭香和橙花的样品中，以及分别来自多花植物和石南花植物的那些，可以使用相同的校准曲线确定。所提出的方法不仅具有选择性，而且具有准确度（相对标准偏差低于6％）和灵敏（检测和定量限低于40μg/ kg）。分析了几个蜂蜜样品，在某些情况下发现了低浓度的百里香酚和香芹酚残渣（定量限-97μg/ kg）。