Discrimination of eight varieties of apricot (Prunus armeniaca) by electronic nose, LLE and SPME using GC–MS and multivariate analysis

Free aroma compounds from eight varieties of apricots (Prunus armeniaca) were discriminated by an electronic nose using principal component analysis (PCA). In a second step, aroma compounds were obtained by liquid–liquid extraction (LLE) and solid phase microextraction (SPME), and identified by gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy (GC–MS). Aroma compounds concentrations were statistically analyzed by PCA and factorial discriminate analysis (FDA). An array was obtained with eight aroma compounds in SPME (hexanol, limonene, 2-hexenal, 6-metil-5-hepten-2-one, linalool, 3,7-dimetil-1,6-octadiene, β-ionone, γ-decalactone), and with five aroma compounds in LLE (limonene, linalool, 1,3-dimethylcyclohexanol, cyclohexylisotiocianate, β-ionone). These aroma compounds served to recognize and classify all the analyzed varieties.