Extraction conditions and identification of volatile organic compounds from umbu pulp by HS-SPME/GC-MS

Abstract despite the high social and economic importance of Spondias tuberosa Arruda, to the best of our knowledge there are very few detailed studies on the volatile compounds of this fruit popularly named umbu. Therefore, the aim of this study was to find the best extraction conditions by solid-phase microextraction in headspace mode (HS-SPME) to determine the volatile compounds from umbu fruit pulp by gas-chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The optimal conditions were obtained using 4 g of pulp and 0.2 NaCl/pulp (w/w), maintained for 10 min in incubation at 40 °C. The SPME-fiber was exposed for 20 min for extraction and then for 40 min for desorption. Thus, a total of 25 volatile compounds were detected and 16 were identified under these conditions, with 9 compounds being identified for the first time in the volatile fraction of umbu fruit pulp and two compounds were identified for the first time in the Spondias genus. The major chemical class was terpenes and esters, which together represent more than 90% of total chromatographic area.