Volatile compounds in two varieties of teff (Eragrostis tef (Zuccagni) Trotter) cultivated in Ethiopia by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Abstract

This study was aimed to investigate volatile compounds of white and brown teff grain samples using the hydro-distillation and its extract in dichloromethane and n-hexane by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The optimized time for the hydro-distillation of the white and brown teff grain samples was nine hours. The dominant volatile compounds identified in the white and brown teff grain samples of the dichloromethane extract corresponding to peak area proportion were furfural (29.9%, 38.1%) and 5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde (15.1%, 23.8%), respectively. The relative amount of dominant volatile compounds determined in the white teff grain sample of the n-hexane extract were 10.2% and 7.27% for the 5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde and 2-[(methylthio)methyl]furan, respectively, and 18.4%, 16.0%, 12.5% and 9.73%, for the furfural, 5-methyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde, 2-[(methylthio)methyl]furan and benzeneacetaldehyde, respectively, for the brown teff grain sample. This study revealed that dichloromethane was efficient to extract more volatile compounds in the white teff grain sample than in the brown teff grain sample, whereas n-hexane was efficient to extract almost equal number of volatiles in both white and brown teff samples. Besides, aldehydes were the major constituents of the white and brown teff grain samples in both dichloromethane and n-hexane extracts.