Phenotyping Green and Roasted Beans of Nicaraguan Coffea Arabica Varieties Processed with Different Post-Harvest Practices

Abstract

Metabolomics techniques have already been used to characterize two of the most common coffee species, C. arabica and C. canephora, but no studies have focused on the characterization of green and roasted coffee varieties of a certain species. We aim to provide, using NMR-based metabolomics, detailed and comprehensive information regarding the compositional differences of seven coffee varieties (C. arabica) of green and roasted coffee bean batches from Nicaragua. We also evaluate how different varieties react to the same post-harvest procedures such as fermentation time, type of drying and roasting. The study characterises the metabolomic profile of seven different Arabica varieties (Bourbon-typica) enabling us also to assess the possible use of an NMR spectra of bean aqueous extracts to recognize different farms, even from the same geographical area (Nueva Segovia). Here, we also evaluated the effect of post-harvest procedures such as fermentation time and type of drying on green and roasted coffee, suggesting that post-harvest procedures can be responsible for different flavours. This study provides proof of concept for the ability of NMR to phenotype coffee, helping to authenticate and optimise the best way of processing coffee.

Applications and Challenges for Metabolomics via Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

“…We decided to address also foodomics in our issue, which refers to metabolomic approaches applied to foodstuff for investigating topics related to nutrition, fraud detection and traceability of the geographical origin and production/processing procedures of food. In this regard, in our issue, we decided to publish an NMR-based metabolomic study based on water extracts of green and roasted coffee beans of different cultivars from three distinct Nicaraguan farms [7]. We think that this study can show well the potential and versatility of NMR metabolomics.…”