Chemometric analysis and extraction processes of mandarin essential oils

The comparison of Italian mandarin essential oils obtained by means of two different extraction procedures is considered here. Capillary gas chromatography with flame ionization detection was applied to the separation of essential oils sampled in the period October 1982–January 1983. The raw data matrix consisted in total of N = 55 observations, representing samples obtained by pressing (n1 = 42) and peeling (n2 = 13), on p = 17 baseline separated volatile components. In a exploratively approach the data have been first examined by principal factor analysis (PFA); successively, two methods of linear discriminant analysis (LDA) have been applied, discussed and compared. While PFA could not permit an unequivocal discrimination between mandarin essential oils extracted by different technologies, both discriminant methods have given a complete separation.