Selectivity of New β-Cyclodextrin Derivatives as CGC Stationary Phases and Application for the Analysis of Volatile Compounds in Traditional Chinese Medicines

New cyclodextrin derivatives (CDs), heptakis(2,6-di-O-methyl-3-O-methoxymethyl)-β-CD (Ⅰ) and heptakis(2,3,6-tri-O-methoxymethyl)-β-CD (Ⅱ), were investigated for their chromatographic performance as stationary phases for capillary gas chromatography (CGC). Both of the CDs exhibited good selectivity and satisfactory separation for test mixtures and aromatic positional isomers, and volatile compounds from Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort. Additionally, the selectivity and elution orders of major compounds were compared with a well-recognized commercial column on the basis of the results by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The present work demonstrates the good selectivity of the two new CDs and can be used as GC stationary phases for the separation of positional isomers and analytes in complex samples.