Preliminary Identification for Different Quality of Musks by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

A study for the preliminary quality identification of different musk samples by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is presented. The musk samples were extracted using ethanol, and then qualitative analysis by GC-MS was carried out for the musk extracts. The results showed that besides active ingredients, muscone in natural musk, there were various steroids in natural musk which could be used as indicators to identify the quality of musk. In some musk samples without steroids, the higher fatty acid-ester was detected. The experiment has proved that GC-MS was an easy, effective and rapid method for quality identification of different musks.