Fast determination of α- and β-thujone in alcoholic beverages using solid-phase extraction and gas chromatography

Determination of α- and β-thujone concentration in various foodstuffs is of great importance due to their antagonistic action against GABA receptors. The present study describes a fast, simple and sensitive method of α- and β-thujone analysis in alcoholic beverages using gas chromatography combined with solid phase extraction (SPE). The developed method is characterized by: high yield (above 98%); and low sufficient detection limit 0.033 mg/L; high precision (RSD below 1.8%); excellent linearity for α- and β-thujone performed in the concentration range 5.0–300.0 mg/L for α-thujone and 0.5–30.0 mg/L for β-thujone with R2 = 0.9995 and R2 = 0.9992, respectively. The presented analytical approach constitutes substantial improvement on the previously reported methods, which involve solvent consuming liquid–liquid extraction or less selective and difficult to calibrate solid phase micro-extraction (SPME).