Authenticity and Chemometrics of Spices, Herbs, and Seasonings

• Published in: Chemometrics and Authenticity of Foods of Plant Origin pp. 187 - 223
• Main Authors: Rivera-Pérez, Araceli, Romero-González, Roberto, Frenich, Antonia Garrido
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: United Kingdom CRC Press 2023; Taylor & Francis Group
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Metabolomics Approaches; MVDA; HRMS Analyzer; Adulterant Detection; Metabolite Extraction; OPLS DA Score Plot; chemometrics; Garrido Frenich; Soft Independent Model Class Analogy; Curcuma Species; metabolomics; Chemometric Tools; PLS; chromatography; Turmeric Samples; OPLS DA Model; PLS DA Score Plot; Black Pepper Samples; Black Pepper; PCA Score Plot; Sample Preparation; Paprika Samples; Saffron Samples; traceability; UAE Method; Food adulteration; PLS DA Modeling; Conventional Extraction Methods; Unsupervised PCA; NMR spectroscopy
• ISBN: 1032209720; 9781032209722; 9781032199450; 1032199458
• DOI: 10.1201/9781003266167-10

Spices and aromatic herbs have been used for culinary purposes since ancient times due to their well-known organoleptic and nutritional benefits. In recent years, they have become targeted matrices to food fraud and economically motivated mislabeling because of their high economic value and the complexity of the supply chains in the condiment industry. Thus, there is a continuous demand for the development of analytical methodologies to control this emerging issue, leading to the novel application of metabolomics approaches combined with chemometrics for authentication assessment. This chapter is focused on a comprehensive overview of analytical-chemometric tools applied during the last decade (2012-2022) to authenticate seasonings, including adulterant detection, quality control, geographical origin traceability, discrimination according to post-harvest processing and differentiation of cultivars within the same plant species, among other relevant applications related to their genuineness. In this chapter, the main extraction methods applied in metabolomics studies are discussed, revealing the trend toward the use of less solvent-consuming and time-effective methods. The most commonly used analytical methods are discussed, paying attention to those based on chromatographic separation (gas and liquid chromatography) coupled to classical or mass spectrometry detection, as well as spectroscopic approaches based on non-destructive and high-throughput proton nuclear magnetic resonance analysis. This chapter provide an overview of the most promising applications of extraction protocols and analytical techniques in combination with chemometric and metabolomics tools to assess the authenticity and quality control of spices, aromatic herbs, and plant-derived condiments. Emphasis will be put on the most widely applied chromatographic techniques in combination with MS, HRMS or classical detection, as well as the application of promising H NMR-based metabolomics as a non-destructive approach for quality assessment of spices, herbs and seasonings. Besides, the phenolic profile of six widely consumed aromatic herbs and spices was assessed by UAE using an ethanolic solution acidified with 0.1% formic acid for their quality control by LC-HRMS analysis. Metabolomics approaches have also been reported as a high-throughput strategy for quality control, to detect adulteration, as well as other authenticity applications such as the assessment of storage time effect on the metabolic profile of plant-derived condiments.