The biocatalytic production of flavor naturals that determine chemosensory percepts of foods and beverages is an ever challenging target for academic and industrial research. Advances in chemical trace analysis and post-genomic progress at the chemistry-biology interface revealed odor qualities of nature's chemosensory entities to be defined by odorant-induced olfactory receptor activity patterns. Beyond traditional views, this review and meta-analysis now shows characteristic ratios of only about 3 to 40 genuine key odorants for each food, from a group of about 230 out of circa 10 000 food volatiles. This suggests the foodborn stimulus space has co-evolved with, and roughly match our circa 400 olfactory receptors as best natural agonists. This perspective gives insight into nature's chemical signatures of smell, provides the chemical odor codes of more than 220 food samples, and beyond addresses industrial implications for producing recombinants that fully reconstruct the natural odor signatures for use in flavors and fragrances, fully immersive interactive virtual environments, or humanoid bioelectronic noses.

Seventeen aroma-active volatiles, previously identified with high flavor dilution factors in fresh, pink Colombian guavas (Psidium guajava L.), were quantified by stable isotope dilution assays. On the basis of the quantitative data and odor thresholds in water, odor activity values (OAV; ratio of concentration to odor threshold) were calculated. High OAVs were determined for the green, grassy smelling (Z)-3-hexenal and the grapefruit-like smelling 3-sulfanyl-1-hexanol followed by 3-sulfanylhexyl acetate (black currant-like), hexanal (green, grassy), ethyl butanoate (fruity), acetaldehyde (fresh, pungent), trans-4,5-epoxy-(E)-2-decenal (metallic), 4-hydroxy-2,5-dimethyl-3(2H)-furanone (caramel, sweet), cinnamyl alcohol (floral), methyl (2S,3S)-2-hydroxy-3-methylpentanoate (fruity), cinnamyl acetate (floral), methional (cooked potato-like), and 3-hydroxy-4,5-dimethyl-2(5H)-furanone (seasoning-like). Studies on the time course of odorant formation in guava puree or cubes, respectively, showed that (Z)-3-hexenal was hardly present in the intact fruits, but was formed very quickly during crushing. The aroma of fresh guava fruit cubes, which showed a very balanced aroma profile, was successfully mimicked in a reconstitute consisting of 13 odorants in their naturally occurring concentrations. Omission tests, in which single odorants were omitted from the entire aroma reconstitute, revealed (Z)-3-hexenal, 3-sulfanyl-1-hexanol, 4-hydroxy-2,5-dimethyl-3(2H)-furanone, 3-sulfanylhexyl acetate, hexanal, ethyl butanoate, cinnamyl acetate, and methional as the key aroma compounds of pink guavas.

The volatiles present in fresh, pink-fleshed Colombian guavas ( Psidium guajava, L.), variety regional rojo, were carefully isolated by solvent extraction followed by solvent-assisted flavor evaporation, and the aroma-active areas in the gas chromatogram were screened by application of the aroma extract dilution analysis. The results of the identification experiments in combination with the FD factors revealed 4-methoxy-2,5-dimethyl-3(2 H)-furanone, 4-hydroxy-2,5-dimethyl-3(2 H)-furanone, 3-sulfanylhexyl acetate, and 3-sulfanyl-1-hexanol followed by 3-hydroxy-4,5-dimethyl-2(5 H)-furanone, ( Z)-3-hexenal, trans-4,5-epoxy-( E)-2-decenal, cinnamyl alcohol, ethyl butanoate, hexanal, methional, and cinnamyl acetate as important aroma contributors. Enantioselective gas chromatography revealed an enantiomeric distribution close to the racemate in 3-sulfanylhexyl acetate as well as in 3-sulfanyl-1-hexanol. In addition, two fruity smelling diastereomeric methyl 2-hydroxy-3-methylpentanoates were identified as the ( R,S)- and the ( S,S)-isomers, whereas the ( S,R)- and ( R,R)-isomers were absent. Seven odorants were identified for the first time in guavas, among them 3-sulfanylhexyl acetate, 3-sulfanyl-1-hexanol, 3-hydroxy-4,5-dimethyl-2(5 H)-furanone, trans-4,5-epoxy-( E)-2-decenal, and methional were the most odor-active.