Thermogravimetry (TG)-linked scan mass spectrometry (MS) with a capillary tube as the interface was used for the evolved gas analysis from an East Asian lacquer film in this study. TG-MS without the help of the linked scan mass spectrometry has been performed on materials to identify the evolved gases corresponding to the weight decrease during heating the specimen by other investigators. However, the identification of gaseous species becomes very difficult and takes longer time, when the evolved gases contain a large number of compounds, as from natural substances, which make the mass spectra very complicated. Linked scan MS establishes the precursor ion/product ion relationship in a large number of ions originated from a wide variety of compounds, assigning structure to the precursor ion. It is effective to identify the components of these mixed gases. This system was applied to an East Asian lacquer film for the detection of urushiol, which is a main component of the film. Detecting urushiol is very helpful to distinguish the genuine East Asian lacquer film from imitations. As a result, 3-pentadecylcatechol: one of the urushiol components was detected from the evolved gas at 320 degrees C. This result was confirmed by that obtained using pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The TG-linked scan MS is effective to detect the urushiol from the East Asian lacquer film. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.