ABSTRACT
An analytical method for the determination of free amino acids in ciders is reported. It is based on high-performance liquid chromatography with an automatic precolumn derivatization with o-phthaldehyde and 3-mercaptopropionic acid and diode array detection. The method was applied to monitor the amino acids during second fermentation of sparkling ciders. This paper reports the influence of yeast strains and aging time on the amino acid composition of sparkling ciders. The application of principal component analysis enables the ciders to be differentiated on the basis of the two factors considered (yeast strain and aging time). The first principal component, which accounts for 58% of the total variance, achieved the separation according to aging time with serine, glycine, alanine, valine, ornithine, leucine, and lysine as the most important variables. The second principal component, accounting for 28% of the explained variance, is closely related to aspartic acid and asparagine and separates the samples according to the yeast strain.
Subject(s)
Amino Acids/analysis , Beverages/analysis , Fermentation , Malus/chemistry , Saccharomyces cerevisiae/metabolism , Saccharomyces/metabolism , Fruit/chemistry , Time FactorsABSTRACT
The validation of a method based on the purge and trap technique combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-flame ionization detection has been carried out in order to apply it to the analysis of ciders. Although 49 compounds were identified, our work was focused on the study of nine minor esters, obtaining recoveries ranging between 93% for ethyl decanoate and 117% for ethyl 3-methylbutyrate, and a precision (RSDs) ranging between 2.2% for hexyl acetate and ethyl decanoate and 10.9% for isopentyl acetate. To demonstrate the feasibility of the procedure, the method was applied to the analysis of commercial ciders.
