RETENTION BEHAVIOR OF VOLATILE COMPOUNDS IN NORMAL-PHASE HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY ON A DIOL COLUMN

Retention data on a diol column for over 300 compounds of the chemical classes usually contained in aroma extracts of plants and foodstuffs are reported. A concept that largely corrects for minor fluctuations of the mobile phase composition and of the flow-rate was used to measure capacity factors. The mobile phase was composed of pentane and diethyl ether. The high volatility of these two solvents makes the method perfectly adaptable to the prefractionation of aroma extracts and the semi-preparative isolation of compounds. Non-polar compounds such as hydrocarbons are not retained on diol. Polar compounds can be readily eluted, with the exception of strong acids and bases.