Detection of Counterfeit Perfumes by Using GC-MS Technique and Electronic Nose System Combined with Chemometric Tools

Abstract

The Scientific Committee on Cosmetic and Non-Food Products has identified 26 compounds that may cause contact allergy in consumers when present in concentrations above certain legal thresholds in a product. Twenty-four of these compounds are volatiles and can be analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) or electronic nose (e-nose) technologies. This manuscript first describes the use of the GC-MS approach to identify the main volatile compounds present in the original perfumes and their counterfeit samples. The second part of this work focusses on the ability of an e-nose system to discriminate between the original fragrances and their counterfeits. The analyses were carried out using the headspace of the aqueous solutions. GC-MS analysis revealed the identification of 10 allergens in the perfume samples, some of which were only found in the imitated fragrances. The e-nose system achieved a fair discrimination between most of the fragrances analyzed, with the counterfeit fragrances being clearly separated from the original perfumes. It is shown that associating the e-nose system to the appropriate classifier successfully solved the classification task. With Principal Component Analysis (PCA), the three first principal components represented 98.09% of the information in the database.

Keywords: GC-MS; allergens; counterfeit; electronic nose; perfumes; volatile organic compounds.

Figure 1

E-nose experimental set-up used for the sensing measurements.

Figure 2

Histogram performed employing the GC-MS results of the volatile organic compounds detected in the different fragrances of the original and imitation perfumes.

Figure 3

Total Ion Current Chromatogram (TIC) of: (a) A.O and A.I perfume, (b) B.O and B.I perfume, (c) C.O and C.I perfume, (d) D.O and D.I perfume, and (e) E.O and E.I perfume.

Figure 4

Radar plot representing common VOCs detected by GC-MS from original perfumes and their counterfeits: (a) A.O and A.I perfume, (b) B.O and B.I perfume, (c) C.O and C.I perfume, (d) D.O and D.I perfume, and (e) E.O and E.I perfume.

Figure 5

Two-dimensional PCA plot performed on original fragrances and their imitations based on e-nose results (a); Three-dimensional PCA plot performed on original fragrances and their imitations based on e-nose results (b); (c) GC-MS compositional analysis.

Figure 6

Plot of the discriminant function analysis (DFA) performed on original fragrances and their counterfeits based on e-nose results.