We asked Alexis St-Gelais, one of the founders of Phytochemia, to shed some light on gas chromatography – mass spectrometry analysis (GC-MS). He covers the basics, and then examines in detail what GC-MS can… and can’t do.

Providing a GC-MS analysis is rapidly becoming a standard for companies selling essential oils, in large part partly due to consumer demand. While many consumers don’t how to read an analysis, this transparency is a positive development, as well as being educational.

Due to this development, some in the aromatherapy community consider GC-MS to be the only analytical method for essential oils. It is indeed the core of any valuable quality control procedure, though there are in fact other analytical tools that are sometimes appropriate.

You can find Alexis’ in-depth article here.