Extraction, separation and identification of volatile organic compounds obtained by applying SDE (simultaneous distillation extracton method) to juice, leaves and natural fruit of quince.

In our daily lives, a complete flavor experience depends on the combined responses of our senses and the cognitive processing of these inputs. While flavor per se often is thought of as being limited to olfaction, taste and the somatosenses (irritation, tactile and thermal), numerous other sensory inputs are processed by the brain to result in flavor perception. This broad multimodal aspect of flavor perception has only recently been acknowledged and multidisciplinary research directed at its understanding initiated. Flavor research has largely meant a study of the volatile substances in a food or flavoring. The flavor industry sold this component of flavor, and researchers in the academic community have been focused on it. On the other hand, another important part is the aroma and without this property would be difficult to identify the flavor of food product. The task of identifying volatile compounds (aroma compounds) particularly in food matrix is one of the most formidable tasks faced by an analytical chemist. When we find some chemical component in a plant/fruit, we often search for an understanding of why this compound exist in this plant/fruit and determine its function. Besides that, it was also important acquire and progress the knowledge of precursors and pathways that leading the formation of flavor in fruit and vegetables. Formation of aroma compounds in fruits, which is our case study, arise as a result of degradation reactions. In fruits, the plant cell walls soften and internal organization is lost during ripening. This loss of organization permits enzymes normally associated with growth to attack various substrates normally not available to the enzymes. This attack results in the formation of a host of low molecular weight products (volatile aroma compounds) many of which have significant sensory properties. Said this, the following project has as objective the extraction, identification and the quantification of the volatile compounds existing in juice, fruit and leaves of quince fruit. The method used was the SDE or also called Likens-Nickerson method because of his high efficiency in this type of analysis. The quince was selected for being an unusual fruit in this type of studies, given its diversity of compounds able to enrich this study. Analysis was made to three forms of quince in order to know how this parts interact with each other and if the compounds existing in leaves have any similarity with compounds in fruit/juice. It was possible to obtain chromatograms and mass spectra with a good resolution and with thin and well divided peaks. It was achieved a large number of different volatile compounds mostly in quince juice, probably because this juice was brought from an industry that made a previously treatment of the sample. It was also observed common compounds in the three samples but mainly between juice and quince natural fruit as expected. At least, can be said that this study went well, the goal was accomplished, I was able to learn and deepen my knowledge in an area that I hadn’t had the chance to know earlier and in general it was a very enriching experience