Analysis of volatile aromatics in 'Toyonoka' strawberries (Fragaria x ananassa) using porapak Q column extracts

Simultaneous distillation extraction (SDE) is commonly used to extract volatile aromatic compounds from fruit. We recently reported that the Porapak Q column extraction method (PQ) is useful in extracting volatile aromatics from melons. In the present study, we compare the two methods in order to evaluate the effectiveness of PQ for analysing aromatics in strawberry cv. 'Toyonoka'. We identified 52 aromatic compounds with PQ, and 46 with SDE. The recovery of high boiling point compounds was higher with PQ, and notably so with 2,5-dimethyl-4-hydroxy-2H-furan-3-one (DMHF). The average coefficient of variation (CV) of the compounds was 11% using PQ, and 20% using SDE. With respect to odour, the concentrate obtained by PQ was similar to the natural aroma of strawberry, but that obtained by SDE was degraded to a thick, off-flavour. Using PQ, a first wash of 50 ml diethyl ether eluted about 90% of the absorbed volatile compounds. We conclude that PQ is an excellent method for extracting volatile aromatics from strawberries because it can recover volatile compounds with a wide range of boiling points without degradation, especially DMHF, and is highly reproducible.