Unraveling the relationships among essential oil compounds in Aquilaria species using GC-MS and GC-FID techniques

Agarwood, a prized non-timber resource from the Aquilaria genus, is highly valued for its aromatic and medicinal properties, playing a significant role in the healthcare, fragrance, and pharmaceutical industries. This research analyzes essential oils from four Aquilaria species-A. beccariana, A. malaccensis, A. crassna, and A. subintegra-using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-FID). The primary objective is to optimize classification efficiency by reducing computational time and reducing multicollinearity through feature selection. Pearson correlation analysis revealed strong relationships among six chemical compounds-β-selinene (A), dihydro-β-agarofuran (B), δguaiene (C), 10-epi-γ-eudesmol (D), γ-eudesmol (E), and pentadecanoic acid (F). Through feature selection, the three most significant compoundsdihydro-β-agarofuran (B), γ-eudesmol (D), and 10-epi-γ-eudesmol (E)-were identified, achieving a remarkable 90.02% reduction in computational time (from 0.0403 to 0.0040 seconds). These findings highlight the effectiveness of structured feature selection in refining essential oil profiling and enhancing species classification accuracy. Future research directions include exploring machine learning-based feature selection techniques to further streamline feature reduction processes and expand the scope of essential oil authentication. This study contributes to advancing the scientific understanding and practical utilization of agarwood essential oils, paving the way for more efficient and reliable analytical frameworks.