Volatiles and Essential Oils: Their Importance in Food Industry, Abuse Drugs and Environmental Interaction.A focus on Cannabis sativa L. and Other Species

The analysis of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs), from both head spaces and essential oils (EOs), has been performed on several plant species, but with a focus on Cannabis sativa L., and with different applications. The hemp essential oil extracted from several Cannabis sativa varieties has been tested as pest management tool and in the aromatization of an artisanal beer, for the development of the beer aroma bouquet. These different applications of the hemp EO evidence its role of crop by-product rather than waste material, whose yield and composition is influenced by the site and time of harvesting, as experimentally verified. As a Cannabis sativa L. derived material, the head spaces of several blocks of hashish have been profiled: the whole emission profile could be used as a fingerprinting method to help the Investigative Judge evaluate the existence of one or different dealers. As secondary metabolites, VOCs have been evaluated as environmental responses in various habitats (such as the extreme ultramafic soil, or the subaqueous biospheres of the Nemo’s Garden® Project) and growth conditions (such as the essential oil yield and composition changes in different irradiance treatments, or the head spaces emission patterns of Salvia species of different origin all grown in the Pisa Botanic Garden environment). The VOCs role is particularly relevant in the development of the food aroma: the volatile emission profiles of the phases of the production chains of chocolate and coffee has been evaluated to assess the influence of each stage on the volatiles release