Analysis of sugar cane wax using high temperature GC-MS

The processing of sugar cane wax for the purpose of refining requires the elucidation of its chemical constituents. Previous methods were hampered by the lack of techniques that would analyse all the components directly. Fractionation, which was the basis of the previous techniques, severely reduces the accuracy of the quantitative analysis of the wax components. This study elucidates the application of high temperature gas chromatographic techniques coupled with a mass spectrometer to elucidate the chemical constituents of sugar cane wax. The results of the GC-MS analysis were consistent with the interpretation of high-resolution mass spectrometry of the wax by probe insertion. The procedure developed based on this instrumentation is discussed, as well as its limitations with respect to the analysis of sugar cane wax. It was found that sugar cane wax contained homologous series of straight-chained alkanes, alcohol, acids, wax esters and triglycerides.