Flavor natural products with flavoring

Hundreds of essential oils were used as perfumes, flavorings, and medicines for centuries before chemists were capable of studying the mixtures. In 1818, it was found that oil of turpentine has a C H ratio of 5 8, and many other essential oils have similar C H ratios. This group of piney-smelling natural products with similar C H ratios came to be known as terpenes. 

In addition to the three natural flavor categories described above, tea, coffee beans, cocoa beans, flowers (i.e., rose and jasmine), peppermint, and balsam are natural products with flavoring properties (Arctander, 1960 Furia and Bellanca, 1975). 

Discriminant Sensory Analysis. Discriminant sensory analysis, ie, difference testing, is used to determine if a difference can be detected in the flavor of two or more samples by a panel of subjects. These differences may be quantitative, ie, a magnitude can be assigned to the differences but the nature of the difference is not revealed. These procedures yield much less information about the flavor of a food than descriptive analyses, yet are extremely useful eg, a manufacturer might want to substitute one component of a food product with another safer or less expensive one without changing the flavor in any way. Several formulations can be attempted until one is found with flavor characteristics that caimot be discriminated from the original or standard sample. 

One class of flavorings, known as tme fmit, is composed of fmit juices, their concentrates, and their essences. A second group, fmit flavor with other natural flavors (WONF), contains fmit concentrates or extracts that may be fortified with natural essential oils or extractives (isolates), or other naturally occurring plants (64,65). This class of flavor is employed when the manufacturer is compelled by regulation to use only natural products, as in wines and cordials in the United States. 

Applications. The most ubiquitous use of infrared spectrometry is chemical identification. It has long been an important tool for studying newly synthesi2ed compounds in the research lab, but industrial identification uses cover an even wider range. In many industries ir spectrometry is used to assay feedstocks (qv). In the flavors (see Flavors and spices), fragrances (see Perfumes), and cosmetics (qv) industries, it can be used not only for gross identification of feedstocks, but for determining specific sources. The spectra of essential oils (see Oils, essential), essences, and other natural products vary with the season and source. Adulteration and dilution can also be identified. 

Natural" benzaldehyde can be produced in a number of ways. The FDA regulations regarding natural products are found in 21 CFR 101.22. At the present time there is a controversy over what the term natural really means with regard to benzaldehyde. Whether a particular benzaldehyde product is natural or not becomes an issue only if the final product is said to contain natural flavors. 

The diazines pyridazine, pyrimidine, pyrazine, and their benzo derivatives cinnoline, phthalazine, quinazoline, quinoxaline, and phenazine once again played a central role in many investigations. Progress was made on the syntheses and reactions of these heterocycles, and their use as intermediates toward broader goals. Some studies relied on solid-phase, microwave irradiation, or metal-assisted synthetic approaches, while others focused attention more on the X-ray, computational, spectroscopic, and natural product and other biological aspects of these heterocycles. Reports with a common flavor have been grouped together whenever possible. 

Natural products such as wine, fruit juices, flavors, oils, and honey are prime targets for fraudulent adulteration because of their high prices. Sophisticated analytical methods (perhaps including isotope abundance measurements) are required to detect whether natural ingredients have been mixed with ones from cheaper synthetic sources. Isotope abundance is markedly different for natural vs. synthetic molecules and these differences can be exploited to detect adulteration. Several examples follow. 

Another processing procediue that could involve supercritical fluid extraction with CO2 is the preparation of flavor concentrates from meat lipids for use in mixtures of other natural precursors for the preparation of tynthetic meat flavor additives that serve bofii as antioxidants that prevent warmed-over flavor (WOF) in cooked meat diuing storage and enhance the flavor of the natural products. 

Since early antiquity, spices and resins from animal and plant sources have been used extensively for perfumery and flavor purposes, and to a lesser extent for their observed or presumed preservative properties. Fragrance and flavor materials vary from highly complex mixtures to single chemicals. Their history began when people discovered that components characteristic of the aroma of natural products could be enriched by simple methods. Recipes for extraction with olive oil and for distillation have survived from pre-Christian times to this day. 

The number of synthetically produced fragrance and flavor chemicals has since expanded continually as a result of the systematic investigation of essential oils and fragrance complexes for odoriferous compounds. Initially, only major components were isolated from natural products their structure was then elucidated and processes were developed for their isolation or synthesis. With the development of modern analytical techniques, however, it became possible to isolate and identify... 

Nature-identical aroma substances are, with very few exceptions, the only synthetic compounds used in flavors besides natural products. The primary functions of the olfactory and taste receptors, as well as their evolutionary development, may explain why artificial flavor substances are far less important. The majority of compounds used in fragrances are those identified as components of natural products, e.g., constituents of essential oils or resins. The fragrance characteristics of artificial compounds nearly always mimic those of natural products. 

The odors of single chemical compounds are extremely difficult to describe unequivocally. The odors of complex mixtures are often impossible to describe unless one of the components is so characteristic that it largely determines the odor or flavor of the composition. Although an objective classification is not possible, an odor can be described by adjectives such as flowery, fruity, woody, or hay-like, which relate the fragrances to natural or other known products with similar odors. 

Salt, sodium chloride classification compound. Stainless steel, mix of iron and carbon classification mixture. Tap water, dihydrogen oxide plus impurities classification mixture. Sugar, chemical name sucrose classification compound. Vanilla extract, natural product classification mixture. Butter, natural product classification mixture. Maple syrup, natural product classification mixture. Aluminum, metal classification in pure form—element (sold commercially as a mixture of mostly aluminum with trace metals, such as magnesium). Ice, dihydrogen oxide classification in pure form—compound when made from impure tap water—mixture. Milk, natural product classification mixture. Cherry-flavored cough drops, pharmaceutical classification mixture. 

Furthermore, as an extract of a natural product is concentrated, the number of odorants detected increases indefinitely. Clearly, most of the odorants in a natural product are below their odor threshold, and it is only the most potent compounds that are involved in generating the flavor response. An odorant can be very potent at extremely low concentrations if it has an extremely low odor threshold, (unit go). In practice, early GC/O analysts attempted to concentrate the sample as far as possible to identify as many potential odorants as possible. Compositional studies combined with threshold studies were then used to sort out the important odorants from the ones that did not contribute to the flavor experience. Rothe s odor units (OU = concentration in sample/threshold in sample) were an early attempt to rank odorants by potency. The process of determining OU values for a food required a lot of chemical and psychophysical analysis. Dilution analysis was developed to produce an OU-like value directly from GC/O without the need to know the identity of the odorant. In fact, the real value of dilution analysis is that it can tell the analyst which compounds to identify. 

Up until now, most of the published work on the SFE of natural products has been concerned primarily with nonpolar substances such as essential oils, lipids, flavor, and fragrance ingredients. However, recent reports have shown that some polar plant constituents (e.g. flavonoid glycosides, proteins, and steroidal glycosides) can be extracted by SFE as effectively as conventional organic solvent extraction. Examples of SFE applications for natural products are well reviewed in several literature sources [19-22]. 

---