OBJECTIVETo analyse the chemical components of the essential oil of Gum olibanum somalilnds and Gum olibanum Ethiopia, and to set up determination methods of their main components.

METHODTwo kinds of essential oil are identified by GC-MS, and assayed by Gas chromatography, using SE-54 as the packing material (column 2.1 m x 3.2 mm), with column temperature starting from 80 degrees C, holding for 1 min, and then rising at the rate of 15 degrees C per minute to 170 degrees C.

RESULT40 kinds of chemical compounds in the essential oil of Gum olibanum somalilnds and 22 kinds of those of Gum olibanum Ethiopia were identified by GC-MS, the main component in the essential oil of Gum olibanum somalilnds being alpha-pinene, and the main one of Gum olibanum Ethiopia being Octyl acetate 17 batches of samples were determined with the linear range of alpha-pinene being 0-10.80 micrograms, the correlation coefficient being 0.9995, the recovery being 98.16%, RSD being 1.83%; the linear range of Octyl acetate being 0-10.32 micrograms, the correlation coefficient being 0.9996, the recovery being 99.56%, and RSD being 1.36%.

CONCLUSIONThis study can be used for the setting up of the specification of Olibanum.