A comparison of semi-quantitative methods suitable for establishing volatile profiles

作者：Victoria Ruiz-Hernández, María J. Roca, Marcos Egea‐Cortines, Julia Weiß · 发表于：Plant Methods · 年份：2018 · DOI：10.1186/s13007-018-0335-2 · 被引用次数：76 · 研究领域：Advanced Chemical Sensor Technologies、Fermentation and Sensory Analysis、Indoor Air Quality and Microbial Exposure

Full scent profiles emitted by living tissues can be screened by using total ion chromatograms generated in full scan mode and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry technique using Headspace Sorptive Extraction. This allows the identification of specific compounds and their absolute quantification or relative abundance. Quantifications ideally should be based on calibration curves using standards for each compound. However, the unpredictable composition of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and lack of standards make this approach difficult. Researchers studying scent profiles therefore concentrate on identifying specific scent footprints i.e. relative abundance rather than absolute quantities. We compared several semi-quantitative methods: external calibration curves generated in the sampling system and by liquid addition of standards to stir bars, total integrated peak area per fresh weight (FW), normalized peak area per FW, semi-quantification based on internal standard abundance, semi-quantification based on the nearest n -alkane and percentage of emission. Furthermore, we explored the usage of nearest components and single calibrators for semi-quantifications. Any of the semi-quantification methods based on a standard produced similar or even identical results compared to quantification by a true-standard for a compound, except for the method based on standard addition. Each method beholds advantages and disadvantages regarding level of accuracy, experimental variability, ...