Chemical profiling of volatile compounds of various home-made fruit spirits using headspace solid-phase microextraction

Abstract

Fruit spirits are typical alcoholic beverages in the Moravian region of the Czech Republic. The aim of this work was to find differences in chemical composition among volatile profiles of spirits produced from various kinds of fruits. Twenty-four samples of seven kinds of fruit spirits (plum, apple, pear, cherry, mirabelle, apricot and raspberry spirits) were analysed for examination of their volatile profiles. The most abundant family of compounds was esters, particularly ethyl esters. Sesquiterpenes proved to be a significant group of volatile substances by observing the differences between pome and stone fruit spirits [by relative higher content of (E,E)-α-farnesene and by presence of α-zingiberene and (E)-α-bisabolene in volatile profiles of pome fruit spirits]. Only in stone fruit spirits were propyl decanoate and ethyl salicylate found. Some other compounds were observed as being characteristic for individual kinds of analysed fruit spirits, e.g. γ-decalactone for apricot spirits, (E)-β-farnesene for apple spirits, (Z)-9-tetradecen-1-ol for mirabelle spirits or some apocarotenoids for raspberry spirits. This work could potentially be the basis for checking the fruit origin of these distillates, or a partial manual as to how to differentiate individual kinds of pome-fruit spirits (pear and apple spirits) or stone-fruit spirits (plum, mirabelle, apricot spirits).

Advances in Distilled Beverages Authenticity and Quality Testing

“…Actually, recent statistics place Romania as the first country in Europe for illicit alcohol consumption. Still, an exact amount of alcohol consumed cannot be given because, especially East European countries have their own tradition for homemade producing and consumption of distilled beverages [15][16][17][18][19][20].…”

Authentification of fruit spirits using HS-SPME/GC-FID and OPLS methods

“…Experimental conditions used for the headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) method were the same as those previously described 7 . Briefly, they were as follow: 2 mL of fruit spirit and 8 mL of sodium chloride water solution (28.5% (w/v)) were transferred into a 20 mL vial and properly mixed.…”

“…Nitrogen was used as a make-up gas with a flow rate of 30 mL/min. Mixture of standard n -alkanes (C8-C33) was analysed at the same chromatographic conditions as the samples 7 . n -Alkanes solution was measured for calculation of retention indexes (RI).…”

“…There are a number of studies found on the compositions of volatile compounds in fruit spirits, such as plum brandy 1 , 2 , pear brandy 3 , apricot brandy 4 , apple brandy 5 , mirabelle brandy 6 or raspberry brandy 7 . Some of them also dealt with the comparison of aromatic compounds in different kinds of fruit spirits 5 , 8 .…”

“…Some of them also dealt with the comparison of aromatic compounds in different kinds of fruit spirits 5 , 8 . Characteristic compounds for FS are esters (typically ethylesters such as ethyl caprylate, ethyl caprate, ethyl laurate, ethyl myristate, ethyl palmitate and others) which are common for many types of FS and form dominant part of aroma profile 7 . Differences between different types of distillates are caused by other volatile substances that are part of a complex matrix containing hundreds of volatile compounds.…”