This recommended practice enables the quantification of volatile compounds in flavourings to be made by gas chromatography with flame-ionization detection, without having authentic compounds available, and also in many cases it can avoid time-consuming calibration procedures. The relative-response factors (RRF) can be predicted from the molecular formula of the compound, and this approach can be applied to compounds containing the atoms C, H, O, N, S, F, Cl, Br, I, and Si, providing that the molecular formula and number of benzene rings in the analytes are known. The purity of chemicallydefined flavouring substances or chromatographic standards can also be estimated using these predicted RRF, and this procedure can also be used to quantify (poly)hydroxylated compounds, after their derivatization into trimethylsilyl ethers or esters.

The use of aromatic plants and spices to prepare beverages dates back to ancient Mediterranean history. This article presents a non-exhaustive overview of the historical and current use of some botanicals in the aromatization of different types of alcoholic beverages, including some legislative aspects.

SummaryGC headspace analyses of various aromatizing herbs have been compared with those relating to the essential oils, obtained by steam distillation, of the same plants. In this way it was possible to establish the most significant differences between the composition of a herb flavor and that of its essential oil. In particular, we observed some very volatile compounds in the headspace samples which were absent from the essential oil; these components may make an important contribution to the herb flavor. The identification of these substances is still in progress.

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