Authentication of Coffea arabica according to Triacylglycerol Stereospecific Composition

Abstract

Stereospecific analysis is an important tool for the characterization of lipid fraction of food products. In the present research, an approach to characterize arabica and robusta varieties by structural analysis of the triacylglycerol (TAG) fraction is reported. The lipids were Soxhlet extracted from ground roasted coffee beans with petroleum ether, and the fatty acids (FA) were determined as their corresponding methyl esters. The results of a chemical-enzymatic-chromatographic method were elaborated by a chemometric procedure, Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA). According to the total and intrapositional FA composition of TAG fraction, the obtained results were able to characterize roasted pure coffee samples and coffee mixtures with 10% robusta coffee added to arabica coffee. Totally correct classified samples were obtained when the TAG stereospecific results of the considered coffee mixture (90: 10 arabica/robusta) were elaborated by LDA procedure.