A comprehensive study on the chemical composition and aromatic characteristics of lemon liquor

Lemon liquor, commonly known as “Limoncello”, obtained from maceration of lemon peels in ethanol, water and sugar, has become a product in great demand in the international market. Scientific literature reports just a few studies on Limoncello, however, in consideration of the data available, it can be assumed that in many cases the need of industry for standard products leads to the addition of essential oils and/or related to the alcoholic syrup. Aim of this study was therefore to investigate the volatile and non volatile fraction of lemon liquors of different commercial brands, using solid phase microextraction, gas chromatography-quadrupole mass spectrometry, chiral-gas chromatography and reversed phase HPLC.