Determination of Lipids and Fatty Acids in Green Coffee Beans (Coffea arabica L.) Harvested in Different Agroclimatic Zones of the Department of Quindío, Colombia

Abstract

The objective of this work was to quantify and characterize the lipid fraction of coffee beans grown in different agroclimatic zones of the department of Quindío, seeking to provide coffee growers with useful information about the coffee produced on their farms and the ability to determine coffee quality and sensory attributes. The lipid extraction process was carried out using two different methods: Soxhlet and Soxtec. The bias was established through concordance analysis using the Bland–Altman test to determine the correlation between the two extraction methods. The final results were compared for each agroclimatic zone, and no significant differences were found between the values for average lipid content of the coffee, which varied between 12.01% and 12.90%. When characterizing the profile of fatty acids present in the lipid fraction of coffee using the technique of gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry, it was evidenced that the major acids present in the green coffee bean were linoleic acid and palmitic acid, with an average content between 39.83–40.83% and 36.92–37.90%, respectively, and that these fatty acid contents presented statistically significant differences in areas with higher elevations, higher relative humidity and less sunlight (zones 3 and 4). Stearic acid presented differences in all of the agroclimatic zones.