Deep Eutectic Solvent-Based HS-SME Coupled with GC for the Analysis of Bioactive Terpenoids in Chamaecyparis obtusa Leaves

Headspace-solvent microextraction (HS-SME) was developed as a solvent-minimized extraction technique, but few studies have examined the applications of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) to the HS-SME of bioactive compounds. In this study, HS-SME was developed for the extraction of bioactive compounds using DESs as extraction solvents. DESs, which were prepared by mixing choline chloride (ChCl) with ethylene glycol (EG) at different ratios, were applied to the extraction of three terpenoids from Chamaecyparis obtusa leaves by HS-SME. The ChCl/EG ratio in the DESs, HS-SME conditions, such as the extraction temperature and extraction time, and sample/DES ratio were optimized. All extracts were analyzed by GC. Under optimized conditions, the limits of detection were 2.006 ng mL−1 for linalool, 3.150 ng mL−1 for α-terpineol and 2.129 ng mL−1 for terpinyl acetate. The relative standard deviations were in the range of 2.1–6.8 %. The recoveries of the three terpenoids were in the range of 79.4–103 %. HS-SME is simple and rapid compared to heat reflux extraction and ultrasonic extraction. Moreover, DESs can be used in HS-SME for the extraction of a range of bioactive and volatile compounds.