Essential oils are highly appreciated by the cosmetics industry because they have antimicrobial and antioxidant properties, among others. Since essential oils are natural products, their inclusion in cosmetic formulations is a common practice. Currently, low-quality and/or adulterated essential oils can be found on the market; therefore, analytical methods for control are required. Raman spectroscopy is a versatile technique that can be used for quality control tasks; the portability of modern devices expand the analytical possibilities also to in situ measurements. Fifteen essential oils of interest for the cosmetics industry were measured using a handheld Raman spectrometer, and the assignment of the main bands observed in their average spectra was proposed. In most cases, it is possible to distinguish the essential oils by a simple visual inspection of their characteristic Raman bands. However, for essential oils extracted from closely-related vegetable species and containing the same main component in a very high proportion, the visual inspection of the spectra may be not enough, and the application of chemometric methods is suggested. Characteristic Raman bands for each essential oil can be used to both identify the essential oils and detect adulterations.

Plant diseases have a direct impact on the productivity of crops, and therefore the early detection of diseases is crucial. Abutilon mosaic virus (AbMV) (family Geminiviridae; genus Begomovirus) is an important virus infecting ornamental crops throughout the world. Abutilon hybridum showing bright yellow mosaic symptoms were observed in gardens in Tumbaco, Ecuador. The infection was confirmed by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) using degenerate begomovirus primers. The amplicon (∼500 bp) was sequenced, submitted to NCBI (KP877621) and showed 68.7–100% and 72.7–100% sequence identity with other begomoviruses at nucleotide and amino acid levels, respectively. In order to evaluate Raman spectroscopy as a diagnostic tool for AbMV infection, spectra of leaves from healthy and infected plants were recorded. Raman signals of carotenoids are the most important features and there is a significant decrease in the intensity of these bands when the plant is infected. The difference in the intensity of the bands, particularly the one at 1526 cm⁻¹, is proposed as a basis for the early detection of viral infection in plants.