Hops (Humulus lupulus L.) are an indispensable component of beer, with the essential oil responsible for imparting distinctive odour and aroma characteristics to beer. However, not all character-impact odorants in hop essential oil have been identified and hop aroma in beer is still not completely understood. The composition of hop essential oil is very complex with 485 compounds currently identified in the literature, and recent research suggests that up to 1000 compounds may actually be present. Only a certain number will be present at concentrations above threshold and make a direct contribution to the odour of the oil. In addition, many important odorants are only present at trace concentrations. Gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O) using human assessors is the best way to locate potent odorants and facilitate their identification.
A novel methodology was developed to identify the character-impact odorants in hop essential oil samples using hyphenated techniques in gas chromatography. GC-O was used to locate odour active compounds and determine relative importance using CharmAnalysis[TM] according to the odour potency principle. Due to the chemical complexity of the samples, considerable co-elution of peaks occurs during single column gas chromatography (1DGC), making the detection and identification of character-impact odorants challenging. Therefore, comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GCxGC) combined with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS) was used to resolve and identify compounds eluting in the odour active regions.
The methodology was developed in a case study on coriander (Coriandrum sativum) and wild coriander (Eryngium foetidum) leaf essential oils. During GC-O analysis of these samples it was recognised that odour active regions frequently coincide with several co-eluting compounds. To address this, a heart-cut multidimensional gas chromatography-olfactometry (MDGC-O) instrument was developed to resolve these 'co-eluting odour clusters' and determine the compound(s) responsible for the odour perception.
The 'spicy' character of hops is considered to be a desirable attribute in beer associated with 'noble hop aroma'. However, the compounds responsible have yet to be adequately elucidated. This character was investigated using a commercial 'Spicy' fraction of hop essential oil, selectively enriched for monoterpene and sesquiterpene alcohols. The odour active compounds in (i) the spicy fractions and (ii) the whole essential oils of four different hop varieties were compared using the presented methodology.
A compound with an intense 'woody, cedarwood' odour was determined to be a potent, character-impact odorant in all samples. This odour coincided with a complex region of the chromatogram where up to thirteen compounds were co-eluting. The peak responsible for this odour was determined by (i) correlation of peak areas with odour potency (Charm) values and (ii) MDGC-O. The compound was tentatively identified by GCxGC-TOFMS as 14-hydroxy-β-caryophyllene, which has not previously been reported as an odorant in hop essential oil. It was concluded that this compound and other 'woody, cedarwood' odorants contributed to the 'spicy' character of the investigated hop samples. Compounds previously associated with noble hop aroma, notably caryophyllene oxide, humulene epoxides I and II, and humulenol II, did not contribute to the odour character of the hop samples.
Other potent odorants that were identified in the whole essential oil and spicy fractions of hops were: geraniol, linalool, β-ionone, eugenol, isovaleric acid, and β-damascenone. While myrcene was a moderately potent odorant in the whole hop essential oil samples, the abundant sesquiterpene hydrocarbons α-humulene, β-caryophyllene and β-farnesene did not significantly contribute to the odour character.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/217797 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Eyres, Graham Terence, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Otago. Department of Food Science |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://policy01.otago.ac.nz/policies/FMPro?-db=policies.fm&-format=viewpolicy.html&-lay=viewpolicy&-sortfield=Title&Type=Academic&-recid=33025&-find), Copyright Graham Terence Eyres |
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