Adulteration identification of Hainan camellia (Camellia oleifera Abel.) oil based on comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography and quadrupole time-of-flight mass coupled with chemometrics spectrometry

The nutritional value of Hainan camellia oil is incomparable to other places, and Hainan camellia oil is expensive, so unscrupulous businessmen often mix other edible oils into them for illegal profit. This study detected the changes of volatile components in Hainan camellia oil adulterated with five edible oils (peanut, soybean, corn, rapeseed, and sunflower oils) using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC x GC-Q-TOFMS). The principal component analysis (PCA) score plot showed that pure Hainan camellia oil (PHCO) and Hainan camellia oil samples were adulterated with other edible oils clearly to identify the adulteration separated from each other. The adulteration of PHCO could be accurately predicted using the developed PCA and OPLS-DA models for concentrations as low as 5%. More importantly, several potential markers were found to identify the impersonate PHCO. Therefore, the volatile compound determination based on HS-SPME-GC x GC-Q-TOFMS proved to be an effective method for detecting adulteration of other edible oils in PHCO.