Abstract: Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to analyze the compositions of the essential oil from Jiangxi R. damascene. A total of 64 components accounting for 92.80% of total relative content were identified by similarity searching in NIST mass database. Chromatographic profiles and mass spectra for seven components were resolved from six peak clusters of 2-dimensional multi-component data by using heuristic evolving latent projection (HELP). These components accounting for 49.77% of the total relative content were identified by similarity searches using the NIST, and verified by comparing the retention time with that of pure samples. Relative contents of phenethyl alcohol, nerol, L-citronellol and geraniol were close to requirements of the standard of ISO 9842:2003.

Key words: gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), heuristic evolving latent projection (HELP), essential oil, chemical components