Adulteration Control of Lavender Essential Oil by using Its Electrical Properties in the Low-Frequency Range

Abstract

With the development of technology, analysis methods have also increased and, as with many products, the properties of essential oils can be studied using methods based on electrical properties. In this study, the electrical properties of lavender essential oil mixed with various fixed oils were to be investigated to determine the adulteration rate more quickly and easily. Corn oil, olive oil, and sunflower oil were selected as fixed oils to obtain the oil samples with different adulteration rates. In this context, the real and imaginary parts of the permittivity, the loss tangents, the electrical conductivities, the amplitudes, and the phases of the impedances of the oil samples were measured. The measurements were also used to create an equivalent Debye circuit model for the lavender essential oil in order to analyze its electrical properties. The results showed that the lavender essential oil and the oil samples mixed at different rates showed different results in terms of electrical properties at different frequencies. According to the measurements, electrical conductivity was a critical parameter for a mixture of pure lavender essential oil and corn oil. The loss tangent was investigated for the mixture of pure lavender essential oil and olive oil, and the mixture of pure lavender essential oil and sunflower oil. It was observed that the electrical conductivity in the studied frequency band increased when the adulteration rate in the mixed corn oil samples increased. In addition, the loss tangent of the olive oil mixture and the sunflower oil mixture increased as the adulteration rate of said oil samples increased. By measuring the electrical properties, it may be possible to determine whether there is an adulteration and dilution process for particularly valuable essential oils, and if so, in what proportion.