Extracting Volatile Compounds from Single Plants using Supercritical Fluid Extraction

Analysis of plant volatile compounds typically requires large amounts of plant tissue, thus preventing sampling from specific morphological regions of individual plants. We used supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), with CO 2 as the solvent, to extract plant volatiles from 1.5 g of fresh alfalfa germplasm tissue (Medicago sativa L. and M. glandulosa David). More than 100 volatile and semi-volatile compounds were detected by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GS-MS); most of these (>80) were in sufficient quantity for accurate spectral analysis [...]