Spices and Condiments

Yields

• The volatile oil content of different spices varies widely. It may be as low as 0.1% and as high as 18%.

Quality evaluation
Ideally, the quality of spice oils should be assessed organoleptically by experienced, well-trained panels. But this method is slow and impractical when quick evaluations are needed by industry.
Physico-chemical properties like density, solubility, refractive index and optical rotation are used to characterise essential oils, but they do not provide complete information on the quality. Thin-layer chromatography, gas liquid chromatography, infrared spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, etc., are modern methods used for the objective assessment of quality of essential oils.