RESEARCH ARTICLE


Analysis of Garlic Cultivars Using Head Space Solid Phase Microextrac-tion/Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectroscopy



Jessica G. Clemente1, Jack D. Williams*, 1, Marlene Cross2, Candace C. Chambers3
1 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Mercyhurst University, Erie PA 16546
2 Department of Biology, Mercyhurst University, Erie PA 16546
3 College of Arts and Sciences, Maryville University, St. Louis MO 63141


© 2012 Clemente et al.;

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Mercyhurst University, Erie PA 16546; Tel: (814) 824-2386; Fax: (814) 824-2188; E-mail: jwilliams@mercyhurst.edu


Abstract

Garlic has been widely used throughout history as a food additive for both its flavor and medicinal effects. The actual sulfide compounds found in garlic as well as the potential health benefits associated with garlic have been extensively studied. It has been shown that garlic preparation, growing conditions and cook-ing techniques, have a profound effect on the compounds present and the medicinal qualities afforded. Con-sidering the number of garlic cultivars available and the large focus on growing food organically, differentia-tion between different garlic cultivars would be useful. Using SPME and GC-MS the sulfur compounds pre-sent in a variety of garlic types where identified and quantified. Principal component analysis enabled the dif-ferentiation of the cultivars studied and in one case the differentiation of Organic and Non-Organically grown soft neck garlic.

Keywords: Allium sativum, Garlic, Organic, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Solid Phase Microextraction Gas Chroma-tography Mass Spectroscopy (SPME/GC/MS), Cultivar.