Background: Twenty genuine samples of industrially cold-pressed sweet orange essential oils, were analysed by gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry to determine the values of the carbon isotope ratios (δ(13)C(VPDB)) of selected volatiles and assess the corresponding range of authenticity. Successively, four commercial orange-flavoured products were analysed under identical conditions to evaluate the authenticity of the orange flavour. The samples were extracted by solid-phase microextraction under optimised conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present contribution is focused on the evaluation of a high-speed triple quadrupole mass spectrometer, carried out under moderately fast GC conditions (analysis time: 16.6 min). The mass spectrometric instrument can be operated under high-speed GC conditions, in both full-scan (maximum scan speed: 20 000 amu/s) and multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) modes (minimum dwell time: 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCitrus liqueurs are alcoholic beverages obtained by maceration. The European Parliament protects these alcoholic beverages, forbidding the addition of nature-identical flavoring substances. However, for economical and technological reasons, producers often add natural and/or synthetic flavors to the alcoholic syrup, obtaining artificial spirit drinks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGas chromatography-combustion-isotope mass spectrometry was employed for the assessment of the Carbon isotope ratios of volatiles in Italian mandarin and lemon petitgrain oils. In addition, the composition of the whole oil and the enantiomeric distribution of selected chiral compounds were determined for all the samples by using gas chromatography and by multidimensional and conventional enantioselective gas chromatography. The composition of the oils was compared with previous studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis article focuses on the genuineness assessment of Lime oils (Citrus aurantifolia Swingle and C. latifolia Tanaka), by Multi Dimensional Gas Chromatography (MDGC) to determine the enantiomeric distribution of α-thujene, camphene, β-pinene, sabinene, α-phellandrene, β-phellandrene, limonene, linalool, terpinen-4-ol, α-terpineol and by gas chromatography-combustion isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS) to determine the isotopic ratios of α-pinene, β-pinene, limonene, α-terpineol, neral, geranial, β-caryophyllene, trans-α-bergamotene, germacrene B. To the author's knowledge this is the first attempt to assess the authenticity and differentiate Persian Lime from Key lime oils by GC-C-IRMS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAuthenticity assessment of flavoured strawberry foods was performed using headspace-solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled to gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS). An authenticity range was achieved, investigating on the carbon isotope ratio of numerous selected aroma active volatile components (methyl butanoate, ethyl butanoate, hex-(2E)-enal, methyl hexanoate, buthyl butanoate, ethyl hexanoate, hexyl acetate, linalool, hexyl butanoate, octyl isovalerate, γ-decalactone and octyl hexanoate) of organic Italian fresh strawberries. To the author's knowledge, this is the first time that all these components were investigated simultaneously by GC-C-IRMS on the same sample.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe bitter orange flower oil (or neroli) is an essential product, largely used in perfumery. Neroli is obtained by hydrodistillation or steam distillation, from the flowers of bitter orange (Citrus aurantium L.).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCold-pressed mandarin essential oils are products of great economic importance in many parts of the world and are used in perfumery, as well as in food products. Reconstituted mandarin oils are easy to find on the market; useful information on essential oil authenticity, quality, extraction technique, geographic origin and biogenesis can be attained through high-resolution GC of the volatile fraction, or enantioselective GC, using different chiral stationary phases. Stable isotope ratio analysis has gained considerable interest for the unveiling of citrus oil adulteration, detecting small differences in the isotopic carbon composition and providing plenty of information concerning the discrimination among products of different geographical origin and the adulteration of natural essential oils with synthetic or natural compounds.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present research is focused on the determination of the enantiomeric distribution of chiral compounds, contained in mandarin essential oils, by means of conventional chiral gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (enantio-GC-FID); the results attained were compared with those derived from heart-cutting multidimensional GC-mass spectrometry (MDGC/MS), to evaluate the reliability of the monodimensional technique as a tool for quality control. The Deans-switch MDGC system was equipped with two GC ovens, which were connected via a heated transfer line, a flame ionization detector (FID1) in the first dimension and a quadrupole MS as second-dimension detector. The a priori knowledge of potential co-elutions concerning target compounds (an enantiomer and an interfering compound), when using enantio-GC-FID, could enable the use of corrected enantiomer excess values.
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