'Passing the Sniff Test' - Analysis of e-liquid contents of MONQ personal aromatherapy vapes.

Abstract

There is evidence of essential oils derived from plants being used by humans since Neanderthal times, with applications ranging from medicinal to food preparation. Traditional application methods for these highly concentrated oils include dermal application and inhalation via vaporisation in large quantities of water via steam diffusion. The increase in popularity of e- cigarettes and vaping in the past several years has led to the development of a novel way of delivering essential oils, which involves suspending them in a carrier liquid (in this case vegetable glycerin) and placing them inside a disposable e-cigarette system for inhalation. MONQ is a market leader in this type of product and to our knowledge no independent laboratory has examined the contents of these pens, or the safety of inhaling aerosolised volatiles such as essential oils. In this study, we analysed liquid from these personal aromatherapy vapes using GC-MS. These samples were compared against pure Essential Oils and the NIST17 database to confirm the presence of terpenes within the liquid. The MONQ company claims their pens contain 80:20 VG: EO blend with each ‘puff’ delivering 0.003 ml of essential oils directly to the user. Based on preliminary liquid analysis of the contents, this appears to be false, with essential oils appearing in the samples in very small amounts and their presence in the vapour unconfirmed. This study suggests that further quantitative analysis of the vapour and liquid is necessary to determine whether there are any potential negative health consequences associated with these products, which remain unregulated.

'Bone Broth is So Last Year - I Vape my Vitamins now' - The vaporisation of bioactive molecules in e-cigarette devices.

“…There were no identifiable peaks for terpenes linalool, geraniol or citronellal as would be expected should these be present. 196 The only identifiable flavouring peaks in this analysis were that of 9-octadecene (74%, NIST) and isopropyl palmitate (91%, NIST).…”

“…Previous studies, within the research group, of vaporisers containing essential oils and their extracts have produced distinct terpene peaks, for example linalool, when ingredients such as lavender essential oils or essences were included. 196 It is possible that these essential oil ingredients were in such low concentrations that they were not high enough to be detected at this dilution (10x). It is also possible, as mentioned above that some of these peaks may have been obscured by the carrier fluid peaks, particularly the VG peak.…”