Application of spectrophotometry in the detection of adulteration in Indian citrus oils.

Spectrophotometric examination of citrus essential
oils has been demonstrated to be a useful
compliment to the existing methods of analysis
in establishing their characteristics, quality or
genuineness. However, studies on the absorption
spectra have beenconfinedmostly to Italian
and American citrus oils and so far no report
has been made on the spectrophotometric
examination of Indian citrus oils. An attempt
was, therefore, made to study in detail the ultra
violet, visible and infra-red spectrophotometric
characteristics of Indian mandarin orange oils
in relation to other commercially important
citrus oils namely sweet orange and lime peel oils.
Factors such as maturity of the fruit and regional
variation in relation to absorption spectra were
also studied.