Characterization and Semiquantitative Analysis of Volatile Compounds in Six Varieties of Sugarcane Juice

Abstract

Abstract The volatile composition of six Chinese sugarcane varieties has been analyzed by headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) method coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). A total of 40 volatile compounds were identified by the optimized HS-SPME procedure. It was found that the sugarcane juice from Daheixiong variety contained the highest amount of volatile compounds (108.48 mg/L), followed by Tai 22 (90.13 mg/L), 94128 (87.19 mg/L), Gui 00122 (80.16 mg/L), Yue 00236 (79.43 mg/L) and Taiyou (22.54 mg/L). Ethyl alcohol, limonene, hexanol, (s)-2-heptanol and acetic acid were the most abundant compounds present in sugarcane juice. Interestingly, these compounds were also selected by principal component analysis (PCA) to discriminate the sugarcane juices in terms of their varieties. Overall, the identification of aromatic compounds in sugarcane juice could provide useful information for determining sugarcane varieties and be used as a reference for choosing the suitable sugarcane variety as raw material for producing other product, like rums.