Laura McGregor | Authors

A TD–GC×GC–TOF-MS method for malodour detection

The benefits that GC×GC–TOF-MS with tandem ionization and chemometrics offer for fragrance profiling and authenticity evaluation.

Laura McGregor, Stefan Koschinski, and Elinor Hughes, SepSolve Analytical Assessing aroma profiles with high-capacity sorptive extraction combined with GC×GC–TOF-MS and powerful data mining software.

There are three main sub-species of cannabis—indica, sativa, and ruderalis—but there are hundreds of commercial strains based on these sub-species and their hybrids. Profiling the terpene content in these strains is vital to provide accurate labelling of cannabis-based products, but it can be very challenging. The usual technique for this—one-dimensional gas chromatography (GC)—is not always reliable when it comes to separating the diverse classes of terpenes. This article illustrates how two-dimensional GC (GC×GC) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) can be used to profile cannabis terpenes with enhanced separation, resulting in the confident identification of terpenes and improved flavour interpretation.

This proof-of-principle study shows that polymer-based sorptive extraction probes, coupled with secondary focusing by thermal desorption and analysis by flow-modulated GC×GC–TOF-MS/FID, can be used to separate and identify flavour compounds in milk. As well as comparing the profiles of dairy and non-dairy milks, this article highlights the practical benefits of this sampling procedure, the ability of two-dimensional GC to physically separate components that would coelute in one-dimensional GC, and the use of software tools to improve workflow.

This proof-of-principle study shows that dynamic headspace sampling with thermal desorption–gas chromatography–time‑of-flight mass spectrometry (TD–GC–TOF-MS) analysis can be used to investigate the complex aroma profiles released from flavoured cookies. Key flavour compounds in chocolate-chip, peanut, and orange-cream cookies are highlighted, and the effect of raising the headspace extraction temperature is examined.