Abstract: A method for the determination of residual ethyl acetate in green tea extract has been studied by headspace gas chromatography in order to set up an analysis method. A wide bore HP-fast GC residual solvent column was performed, and the effects of the equilibrium temperature and equilibrium time on the determination of ethyl acetate were studied. The results showed that the standard curve was linear in the range of 0.0765~0.612μg/ml (r=0.9993). the relative standard deviation (n=6) of precision was 3.60%. the average recoveries were between 95.42% and 97.88% with RSD in the range of 1.95%~3.09%, the minimum detectable concentration(S/N=3) was 0.005μg/ml. It is a rapid, sensitive, accurate and uncontaminated method and applicable for the determination of residual ethyl acetate in green tea extract.

Key words: headspace gas chromatography, green tea extract, ethyl acetate, residual organic solvent