This study investigates if leaves from the hops plant (Hummulus lupulus Linnaeus 1753) retain their chemical signature with increasing time in herbarium storage. We used pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to investigate the chemical composition of four H. lupulus leaves, two modern and two herbarium samples (1919 and 1882). The older samples showed far fewer chemical compounds than the modern leaves. This suggests that herbarium samples do not retain most chemical compounds found in living plants for this species. This has implications for storage of leaves depending on whether chemical composition is something that is considered desirable or not to be preserved for specific plant species.
