Abstract: This study enhances an undergraduate instrumental analysis experiment focused on the separation and quantification of five principal components—eucalyptol, camphor, menthol, methyl salicylate, and eugenol—in traditional Chinese medicine preparations using gas chromatography. It introduces a simultaneous application of internal standard, external standard, and normalization methods to the same dataset to assess the accuracy of quantitative results. This approach enables students to grasp fundamental chromatographic qualitative and quantitative techniques, understand the applicability of various quantitative methods, and learn to calculate theoretical plate numbers and resolution within a limited teaching timeframe. By integrating basic chromatographic theory with the analysis of main components in everyday items such as wind oil essence, this experiment not only demonstrates the practical application of theoretical knowledge but also promotes environmental sustainability. It effectively cultivates students' capabilities in analyzing experimental data.

Key words: Gas chromatography, Wind oil essence, Instrumental analysis experiment, Qualitative and quantitative methods