Mentha piperita essential oil (EO) has high economic importance because of its wide usage area and health-beneficial properties. Besides health-beneficial properties, Mentha piperita EO has great importance in the flavor and food industries because of its unique sensory and quality properties. High-valued essential oils are prone to being adulterated with economic motivations. This kind of adulteration deteriorates the quality of authentic essential oil, injures the consumers, and causes negative effects on the whole supply chain from producer to the consumer. The current research used fast, economic, robust, reliable, and effective ATR-FTIR spectroscopy coupled chemometrics of hierarchical cluster analysis(HCA), principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares regression (PLSR) and principal component regression (PCR) for monitoring of Mentha spicata EO and L-menthol adulteration in Mentha piperita EOs. Adulterant contents (Mentha spicata and L-menthol) were successfully calculated using PLSR and PCR models. Standard error of the cross-validation SECV values changed between 0.06 and 2.14. Additionally, bias and press values showed alteration between 0.06 and1.43 and 0.03 and 41.15, respectively. Authentic Mentha piperita was successfully distinguished from adulterated samples, Mentha spicata and L-menthol, by HCA and PCA analysis. The results showed that attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, coupled with chemometrics could be effectively used for monitoring various adulterants in essential oils.

Essential oils are high-valued natural extracts that are involved in industries such as food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutics. The lemon essential oil (LEO) has high economic importance in the food and beverage industry because of its health-beneficial characteristics and desired flavor properties. LEO, similar to other natural extracts, is prone to being adulterated through economic motivations. Adulteration causes unfair competition between vendors, disruptions in national economies, and crucial risks for consumers worldwide. There is a need for cost-effective, rapid, reliable, robust, and eco-friendly analytical techniques to detect adulterants in essential oils. The current research developed chemometric models for the quantification of three adulterants (orange essential oil, benzyl alcohol, and isopropyl myristate) in cold-pressed LEOs by using hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), principal component regression (PCR), and partial least squares regression (PLSR) based on FTIR spectra. The cold-pressed LEO was successfully distinguished from adulterants by robust HCA. PLSR and PCR showed high accuracy with high R² values (0.99–1) and low standard error of cross-validation (SECV) values (0.58 and 5.21) for cross-validation results of the raw, first derivative, and second derivative FTIR spectra. The findings showed that FTIR spectroscopy combined with multivariate analyses has a considerable capability to detect and quantify adulterants in lemon essential oil.