HPLC-FAB-MS and GCMS study of aromatic compounds of "gum benzoin" resins

"Gum benzoin" resins originating from North Sumatra were studied by modern analytical techniques because of their commercial value for the local population. It is known, that these resins contain some valuable aromatic esters, but until now, studies of these type of compounds involved an alkaline hydrolysis step, concentrating therefore on the free acid and alcohol content. We omitted the hydrolysis step and analysed the resins both with and without a derivatisation step For GC/MS measurements, the resins were silylated with BSTFA and dissolved in DCM prior to on-column injection.