Volatile constituents of benzoin gums: Siam and Sumatra, part 3. Fast characterization with an electronic nose

Abstract

The quality control of natural raw materials is a challenging issue for the food, cosmetic, perfume and tobacco industries. The applicability of an electronic nose for the discrimination of origin, qualities and harvesting year of a natural raw material (benzoin gum) currently used by all those industries was tested. An electronic nose including 18 metal oxide sensors was used to analyse and discriminate 56 benzoin gum samples according to their origin (Siam and Sumatra), quality grade, variety (mixture of gums traded as benzoin gums) and year of harvesting. Thanks to its sensitivity, the electronic nose based on metal oxide sensors demonstrated a high ability to assess both the quality and the organoleptic features of the benzoin gum samples. Fast analysis and ease of use make this instrument a good quality control tool. A comparison with an electronic nose based on fingerprint mass spectrometry was also studied. Copyright

Volatome analysis approach for the taxonomic classification of tree exudate collection using Proton Transfer Reaction Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry

“…this resin is characterized by a typical volatile profile very different even from species of plants belonging to the same genus. Instead, as reported elsewhere, the benzoin resin is typically composed of coniferyl, benzyl and p‐coumaryl benzoates, cinnamyl cinnamate (styracin), benzoic acid, a small amount of coniferyl alcohol (lubanol), and traces of benzaldehyde, styrene, vanillin and other compounds. These results showed how the PTR‐ToF‐MS technology can be effectively used for a rapid and non‐destructive detection and identification of VOCs, and we evaluated the VOCs emission by different wood exudates (resins).…”

“…Finally, the confusion matrices (data not shown) applied to classify the species indicated how most of the calibration/validation observations (89.06%) and of the test ones (88.57%) were correctly classified (grey values on the main diagonals, reported elsewhere, [75][76][77] the benzoin resin is typically composed of coniferyl, benzyl and p-coumaryl benzoates, cinnamyl cinnamate (styracin), benzoic acid, a small amount of coniferyl alcohol (lubanol), and traces of benzaldehyde, styrene, vanillin and other compounds.…”

New insights in the chemical composition of benzoin balsams

“…Siamyl-1,3-dibenzoate 5 Siamyl-1,2-dibenzoate 6 Siamyl-2,3-dibenzoate 7 pre-treatment strategies Fernandez et al, 2003;Fernandez et al, 2006). These studies led to the conclusion that, apart from benzyl benzoate 12 characterised as the major compound in both types, numerous differences exist between both balsams and their distinction based on the acute analysis of their volatile fraction appears to be quite evident.…”

“…For this, volatile extracts obtained by hydrodistillation of 50 kg of each benzoin gum were analysed using High Temperature-Gas Chromatography (HT-GC), Gas Chromatography coupled to Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) and electronic nose using different sample pre-treatment strategies Fernandez, Castel, Lizzani-Cuvelier, Delbecque, & Puech Venzal, 2006;Fernandez, Lizzani-Cuvelier, Loiseau, Perichet, & Delbecque, 2003). The GC/MS study of these extracts led respectively to the identification of 20 and 29 compounds.…”

Identification of benzoin obtained from calli of Styrax officinalis by HPLC

“…Styrax and benzoin balsams have been widely employed since ancient times by the Romans (Gianno et al, 1990;Modugno et al, 2006), Egyptians, and Phoenicians to treat chronic infections of the respiratory tract, due to the therapeutic and pharmacological properties of the species which include disinfectant, expectorant, and vulnerary activities (Modugno et al, 2006). Nowadays, their use is extended to perfumery and fixative agents, whilst their antioxidant and organoleptic properties are valued in the cosmetic and food industries for conservation and improvement of flavour (Fernandez et al, 2003(Fernandez et al, , 2006a(Fernandez et al, , 2006bCastel et al, 2006). Due to the great economic importance of its resinous benzoin substance, in the present study we have tested different agents such as boric acid and cocarboxylase (thiamine diphosphate), extensive stimulators of resin channels, in order to increase the amount of benzoin volatile oil in in vitro grown stem tissues of Styrax officinalis.…”