Search

Browse

• Communities
• Authors
• Year
• Titles
• Subjects

My Space

• Login

Analysis of the volatile profile of thyme honey samples using vacuum-assisted headspace solid-phase microextraction

Koutsospyrou Melina-Aristea

Full record

---

Summary

In recent years, more and more researchers have been involved in the analysis of a variety of foods, with a view to using as ecological methods as possible. This thesis is about honey, its nutritional value as well as its geographical and botanical origin. In particular, it focuses on the analysis of the volatile profile of thyme honey samples using the Vacuum assisted headspace solid phase microextraction (Vac HS – SPME) method and its comparison with the Headspace Solid Phase Microextraction (HS – SPME) method under atmospheric pressure. The main advantage of this method (Vac HS – SPME) is the acceleration of the extraction time. In addition, it is a simple and fast procedure because the volumes of samples put up for analysis are small. In this work, temperature, extraction time and the effect of vacuum were studied as parameters. Furthermore, an optimization of the solid phase microextraction method in the supernatant space under atmospheric pressure (HS – SPME) and vacuum (Vac HS – SPME) conditions was carried out on a sample of thyme honey A. By reducing the pressure, an increase of kinetics is achieved and the resistance of compound transfer from the solid to the gas phase is reduced. The optimum conditions for HS – SPME were considered to be a temperature equal to 60 ⁰C and an extraction time equal to 40 min. For Vac HS – SPME, the optimum conditions were considered to be a temperature equal to 45 ⁰C and an extraction time equal to 40 min. In addition, samples of thyme honey B, C and D from the prefecture of Chania were analysed using the method HS – SPME in order to compare them with sample A. Moreover, analyses were also performed on different types of honey and more specifically on samples of oak, orange and arbutus honey from the prefecture of Arta in order to compare and characterize the quality of the volatile compounds profile between those and thyme honey. In conclusion, the Vac HS – SPME method has better extraction efficiency and at the same time the vacuum conditions helped to identify more target compounds and, more importantly, requires less extraction time to achieve the same result.

Available Files

Services