Simultaneous headspace solid phase microextraction analysis of off‐flavour compounds from Quercus suber L. cork

Abstract

AbstractA headspace solid phase microextraction/gas chromatography/(ion trap) mass spectrometry (HS‐SPME/GC/MS) method was developed for the simultaneous analysis of volatile compounds responsible for off‐flavours in cork‐stoppered wines, namely 3‐methyl‐1‐butanol (3MB), 1‐octen‐3‐ol (OCT3), 1‐octanol (1OCT), guaiacol (GUA), 2‐methylisoborneol (MIB), 2,4,6‐trichloroanisole (TCA) and geosmine (GEO). Extraction temperature, global linearity and linearity, reproducibility and repeatability of each chemical were optimised and interference effects were studied. The optimisation studies showed that an extraction temperature of 30 °C gave the best reproducibility and linearity. The global chromatographic areas were linearly correlated (R2 = 0.9788) with the global matrix concentration between 41.5 and 275.2 mg L−1. The reproducibility and linearity of the studied HS‐SPME methodology indicated coefficients of variation between 3.2 and 8.8% and linear responses to all compounds, with regression coefficients (R2) between 0.9516 and 0.9886. Finally, it has been observed that variation of the concentration of 1OCT causes significant variation in the chromatographic areas of the other compounds, with the exception of OCT3. Therefore, if 1OCT is detected at a level that potentially causes interferences in quantification of the other components, new calibration curves must be prepared incorporating an appropriate background concentration of this component. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry