Perfume quality control

Quality Control. Reproducible production of perfumes requires careful quality control of all materials used as well as the compounding process itself. The use of analytical tools has iacreased over the years with their availability, but there can be no substitute for organoleptic evaluation. The human nose is far more sensitive than any analytical instmment for certain materials, yet it is also quite limited as a quantitative tool and is subject to fatigue. There are also weU-documented examples of specific anosmias ia iadividuals, ie, iaability to smell certain odor types, which is somewhat analogous to color-blindness. 

In this article we will present data obtained using the DAS inlet, sampling perfume mixtures, emanating from open vials or applied to skin, in order to demonstrate the principles of APCI/MS/MS and its use in research and quality control within the fragrance and flavor industry. 

Perfumes contain 10-25% oil in SDA 39C. The denaturant is diethyl phthalate - 1 100. Colognes and toilet waters contain 2-6% oil in SDA 40 as shown in Figure 9. The denaturant is brucine sulfate - 3 oz. per 100 gallons. Ethanol used as a solvent for flavors is the 95% grade and is fully taxed since it is potable. All ethanol used for fragrances and flavors must get by the close scrutiny of the Quality Control perfumer or flavorist. The road can be rough. 

The initial stir soon calmed down, to be replaced by a feeling that the gas chromatograph, while highly useful to the analytical chemist and to quality control, would have little or no effect upon the perfumer s essential job, the creation of perfumes. 

Like any other creative art the art of perfumery depends upon experience and technique as well as upon inspiration. Experience and technique can only be acquired by an immense amount of patient study and hard work, frequently beset by disappointment and frustration. Yet for the talented and enthusiastic student the obstacles are more than offset by the sense of discovery and excitement that surrounds the work. The training will usually involve either working as an apprentice (often as a compounder) to a senior perfumer or formal study in one of the perfumery schools. The apprentice perfumer will probably be required to spend some time gaining firsthand experience in other departments of the company, in related areas such as production, the application of perfumes in different functional products, product evaluation and marketing, analytical techniques, and quality control. There is little room today for the "ivory tower" approach to perfumery a perfumer is seen as part of a team of experts working toward the success of a company. 

Apart from the use as a Quality Control device, other areas in which an artificial odour-sensing system could be utilized include all those in which classification of odour is required for example, human body odour, malodours and malodour counteractancy. Another area in which the new instrumentation could be utilized to advantage includes perfume substantivity, or diffusion from a substrate. For example, it could be used to measure levels of perfume in the air from a hard surface cleaner when used on a ceramic tile, or odour from human skin after spraying with a cologne, and so on. 

After nearly 40 years of activity in perfume and flavor research, the author has considered that a detailed description of coffee flavor volatile constituents could make people concretely acquainted with the identity and the organoleptic properties of the hundreds of constituents they unconsciously swallow every day. From the simple to the more complex structures, each compound brings a contribution to the pleasure felt when drinking a cup of good coffee. Through this book, organic and analytical chemists, quality control specialists and flavorists, will have at their disposal information on the nearly 300 and 850 volatile constituents which have been respectively identified in green and roast coffee. 

See also Essential Oils. Food and Nutritional Analysis Antioxidants and Presen/atives. Perfumes. Quality Assurance Quality Control. Surfactants and Detergents. 

In the past, quality control of perfumes was done by measuring physical properties like the refractive index, density, and optical rotation, in addition to very simple chemical tests like acidimetry and measurement of the saponification and carbonyl indexes. However, these tests were only useful for checking the raw materials or the final product, and they did not offer an actual determination of the compounds that were present in an unknown perfume. 

Quality control of both, commercial perfumes and raw materials, is important for perfume manufacturers to assure that the finished perfume is the one that was formulated. On the other hand, analytical methods are necessary to assure, for safety purposes, that there are no undesired or banned compounds present in the finished product. Methods for perfume analysis are compiled and revised with special emphasis on the potentially allergenic fragrance-related substances and some other groups of substances such as musks and phthalates, being some of them restricted or forbidden. 

Analytical chemistry essential oil fragrances musks perfume phthalates potentially allergenic substances quality control... 

There has recently been considerable interest in the detection and identification of air-borne volatile compounds in such diverse areas as quality control of perfume to detection of toxic gases. Miniaturization, the potential low cost of sensors and the variety of applications promise an enormous market (29, 30), Chemical sensors (29) for volatile compounds operate on varied principles and can be classified according to the method of functioning into basic groups such as electrical (field-effect transistors, metal oxide semiconductors and organic semiconductors), optical (spectrophotometric, luminescence, optothermal) and sensors that are sensitive to a change of mass (piezoelectric and acoustosurface). 

In this last case, additional quality control of perfumery raw materials by cosmetic manufacturers is not needed, since perfume manufacturers issue a certificate that guarantees the quality of the perfumery raw material. Nevertheless, cosmetic manufacturers can obviously perform a quahty control of the raw material that they are buying to manufacture their cosmetics, in order to avoid quahty variations in their final product. 

The electronic nose arrays have today successfully been used in a vast number of applications. The electronic noses are particularly appealing in food analysis since they resemble the traditional way of controlling the quality of foodstuffs. The electronic nose is already applied as a complement to sensory test panels in the food industry for product quality classification. Examples of applications are classification of grains [6] and beer [7]. Examples of other consumables tested are tobacco [8] and perfumes [9]. Applications in other areas such as environmental control and pulp and paper quality are also reported in over five hundred references currently found in the literature on electronic noses. 

Essential Oils Analytical Methods to 107 Control the Quality of Perfumes I w /... 

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