Study of Burseraceae resins used in binding media and varnishes from artworks by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and pyrolysis-gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

In the present work, a study attempting to characterize the Manila elemi and Mexican copal resins from the Burseraceae family, which are used as components of varnishes and binding media of artworks, has been carried out. A new GC–MS method involving the use of methyl chloroformate as derivatisation reagent has been proposed. A second method which uses pyrolysis-GC–MS and hexamethyldisilazane as derivatization reagent has also been applied. Characterization of the main components of the mono-, sesqui- and triterpenoid fractions occurring in the raw materials has been achieved. Both α- and β-amyrin have been established as the major triterpenoid compounds occurring in these resins together with hop-22(29)-en-3β-ol, found only in the Mexican copal. Artificially aged samples of Manila elemi and Mexican copal have also been analysed in order to study the stability of the triterpenoid components of the resins and their possible use as marker molecules. The results obtained indicate that these molecules, in particular, α- and β-amyrin undergo oxidation processes during both artificial and natural ageing. Nevertheless, hop-22(29)-en-3β-ol could be selected as marker compound for Mexican copal. The proposed methods of analysis have been applied to real paint samples extracted from paintings in which Mexican copal was present as the main component of an “oleoresin” binding medium to assess their ability for identifying this product when used in artworks. Satisfactory identification of this resin is obtained by means of GC–MS whereas Py-GC–MS provides, in general, weaker signals for the components of the resin. Additionally, the influence of the pigments present in real samples on the resin ageing process has been considered.