Characterization of volatile compounds of liquid smoke flavourings from some tropical hardwoods

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the chemical composition of the liquid smoke flavouring obtained from the pyrolysis of five tropical kinds of wood. Chemical characterization was performed by FT-IR and GC/MS on liquid smoke fractions soluble in dichloromethane. FT-IR spectroscopy revealed the presence of specific functional groups and chemical bonds of certain volatile compounds in liquid smoke. Besides, the chemical composition of this volatile fraction was also studied by GC/MS technique. Furfural, phenol,2‑methoxy-, creosol, and phenol,4-ethyl-2‑methoxy- were the aromatic compounds detected in greater proportion in all samples. The analysed liquid smoke flavourings showed differences in terms of proportions of the major aromatic compounds and also as regards the absence or presence of certain volatile compounds detected. The results suggest that all these woods are suitable for exploitation in the smoking food industry because they produce smoke containing large proportions of aromatic substances classified amongst the most flavour and odour-active compounds.

Keywords

• Tropical hardwoods
• Liquid smoke flavourings
• Pyrolysis
• GC/MS
• FT-IR
• volatile aromatic compounds