Anti-plasmodial Property Of Moringa Oleifera Seed Extract On Swiss Mice

3.4 Gas Chromatographic-Mass Spectrometry (GCMS)
GC-MS is a “hyphenated” experimental technique that incorporates two widely used methods in tandem. The GC portion is the Gas Chromatography used for separating components in a mixture, and the MS portion is the Mass Spectrometry used in the qualitative and quantitative analysis of each component that was separated by the GC. The combination of these two highly applicable techniques creates possibly the most commonly used instrument for analytical scientists.Gas chromatographic-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is a very powerful and ubiquitousanalytical technique. It is often the analytical method of choice in toxicology, forensics, foodscience, and environmental research. In essence, this hybrid instrument replaces the traditionalthermal-conductivity detector (TCD) or flame-ionization chromatographic detector (FID) with avery sensitive and information-rich mass spectrometer (MS). Not only can a GC-MS separatethe volatile components of complex mixtures, but it can also record a mass spectrum of eachcomponent. This hybrid instrument provides two separate dimensions of information about thecomponents in the sample, GC retention times and electron ionization (EI) mass spectra. GCretention time is related to specific chemical properties of the molecules in question (e.g.volatility, polarity, presence of specific functional groups) while molecular weight (derived fromthe mass spectrum) is indicative of atomic composition.