FTIR spectroscopy for prediction of quality parameters and antimicrobial activity of commercial vinegars with chemometrics.

Background: The aim of this study was to discriminate between commercial apple, rice, balsamic, red-wine, rose, white-wine, grape, and pomegranate vinegars according to their antimicrobial activities, total phenolic contents (TPC), antioxidant activities, and color parameters, and to predict the quality characteristics of vinegars using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy.

Results: Results showed that the highest TPC (3971.43 ± 25.00) was found in balsamic vinegar whereas the lowest TPC was observed in rice vinegar (14.36 ± 0.16). Antioxidant activities of vinegars were correlated with TPC. Grape-based vinegars exhibited higher antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Escherichia coli (E.coli) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P.aeruginosa). However, there were no statistically significant differences among vinegars in terms of antimicrobial activities. According to principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), vinegars were classified into three groups and each group consisted of vinegars from different raw materials. Prediction models were constructed successfully using partial least squares (PLS) considering whole FTIR spectral data.

Conclusion: The results indicated that FTIR could be used as a rapid method to estimate the antimicrobial activities, TPC, color and antioxidant activities of vinegars. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.