Identification of the volatile profiles of 22 traditional and newly bred maize varieties and their porridges by PTR-QiTOF-MS and HS-SPME GC–MS

Onu Ekpa, Vincenzo Fogliano, Anita Linnemann*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Low adoption of maize varieties bred to address the nutritional needs of the growing African population limits their impact. Aroma is essential in consumer preference, but has hitherto hardly been studied. We analysed the volatile organic compounds of flours and porridges of 22 maize varieties belonging to four nutritionally distinct groups, namely provitamin A maize, quality protein maize, yellow and white maize. RESULTS: Proton-transfer-reaction quadrupole ion time-of-flight mass spectrometry (PTR-QiTOF-MS) analysis generated 524 mass peaks ranging from 16.007 to 448.089 m/z. Principal component analysis separated the varieties belonging to the four groups. With headspace solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (HS-SPME GC–MS), 48 volatile compounds were identified in maize flour and 21 in maize porridge, including hexane, nonane, pentanoic acid, 1-octen-3-ol, 1-hexanol, hexanal, nonanal, 2-pentylfuran and 2-heptanone. Volatile compounds such as 1,2,4-trimethyl benzene, associated with thermal degradation of carotenoids, increased in the porridge of yellow and provitamin A maize. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that PTR-QiTOF-MS and HS-SPME GC–MS combined with multivariate analysis are instrumental to study the volatile aroma compounds of different maize varieties.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1618-1628
JournalJournal of the Science of Food and Agriculture
Volume101
Issue number4
Early online date2 Sept 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Mar 2021

Keywords

  • Africa
  • GC–MS
  • maize
  • porridge
  • PTR-MS
  • volatile aroma compounds

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Identification of the volatile profiles of 22 traditional and newly bred maize varieties and their porridges by PTR-QiTOF-MS and HS-SPME GC–MS'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this