Characterization of the Chemical Composition of the Flower Fragrance of “Sansevieria Cylindric” Plant by SPME / GC-MS : Perfume Applications

The earliest use of perfume bottles is Egyptian and dates to around 1000 BC. The Egyptians invented glass and perfume bottles were one of the first common uses for glass. To develop a new scent, perfumers combine dozens of oils; each with a distinct smell characteristic, to create a blend that they hope will exceed the sum of its parts. The industry cosmetics and fragrance are one of the biggest around the world. Perfumes and fragrances are a $5 billion retail industry. Puerto Rico has a variety of flora that can be explore in order to take part in the perfume industry. A special pioneer project was started in the Chemistry Department of the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez Campus. The plant genus Sansevieria was explored for this purpose, specially the fragrance of the flower of the plant, Sansevieria Cylindric. The scent offers a sensual fragrance designed for the woman who is refined yet playful is a fresh, rich, provocative fragrance. The analytical method used to determine the chemical composition of the selected flower fragrance was solid phase micro-extraction (SPME) and gas chromatography using a mass spectrometry detector (GC/MS). The chemical composition of the Sansevieria Cylindric flower fragrance includes around 38 compounds, several, esters, alcohols and aldehydes and 66% of all the compounds were identified with 80 to 97% match quality. In comparison with the fragrance flower of Sansevieria Trifasciata Laurenti the results shows that the chemical composition are very different.