Assessment of green coffee bean metabolites dependent on coffee quality using a 1H NMR-based metabolomics approach

Abstract

There is increasing interest in the coffee grade or quality with the rise of coffee consumption, but a classical, chemical analysis-based understanding of the coffee bean grade is still limited. We therefore report the identification of green coffee bean metabolites related to coffee bean quality using a 1H NMR-based metabolomic analysis of well-established specialty-grade green coffee beans, in particular, of a single species (Coffea arabica). The higher levels of sucrose and the lower levels of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), quinic acid, choline, acetic acid and fatty acids observed in specialty or high-grade green coffee beans, compared to commercial-grade beans, were suggestive to be multiple markers for characterizing specialty green coffee bean. In particular, variations in sucrose and GABA levels between specialty and commercial coffees could be a consequence of different environmental conditions, for example, biotic or abiotc stresses, at growing regions. These results highlight an alternative method of metabolomic approach for grading green coffee bean.