Terpenes flavour

Terpenes as Renewable Resources for Terpene Flavour Molecules... 

Review Problem 2 This allyl bromide is an important intermediate in the synthesis of terpenes (including many flavouring and perfumery compounds), as the five carbon fi agment occurs widely in nature. How would you make it ... 

Crude turpentine is distilled to obtain refined products used in the fragrance and flavour industry. Only the unsaturated mono- and bicyclic terpenes are of interest for resin production. These are mainly a-pinene, p-pinene and dipentcne (D,L-limonene) (Fig. 17). D-Limonene is obtained by extraction of orange peel in citrus fruits. 

Weinreich B, Nitz S, Influences of processing on the enantiomeric distribution of chiral flavour compounds, Part A Linalyl acetate and terpene alcohols, Chem MikrobiolTechnol Lebensm 14 117—124, 1992. 

Fig. 7.4 Examples of some terpenes that contribute to the flavour of fruits and vegetables...

The modern distinction between vegetable and fruit has been applied and therefore those plants or plant parts that are usually consumed with the main course of a meal will be regarded as vegetables thus, cucumber, tomato and pumpkin that botanically are classified as fruits are included in this section. The flavour compounds found in vegetables are diverse and include fatty acid derivatives, terpenes, sulfur compounds as well as alkaloids. This diversity is partially responsible for the unique flavours found in different species of vegetables. 

The root of carrot Daucus carota) is eaten raw or cooked. The characteristic aroma and flavour of carrots are mainly due to volatile compounds, although non-volatile polyacetylenes and isocoumarins contribute significantly to the bitterness of carrots [1,2]. More than 90 volatile compounds have been identified from carrots (Table 7.9) [207-215]. The carrot volatiles consist mainly of terpenoids in terms of numbers and amounts and include monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and irregular terpenes. Monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes account... 

Guava is native to Central America. It was distributed into other parts of tropical and subtropical areas such as Asia, South Africa, Egypt, and Brazil by the early seventeenth century [49]. Some examples of impact-flavour compounds have already been identified in guava -ionone [58], terpene hydrocarbons [63], and esters [43] could be mentioned. 

Essences of pink and white fresh guava obtained by direct extraction of flesh juices with dichloromethane revealed that the total amount of Cs aldehydes, alcohols, and acids comprised 20 and 44% of the essence of fresh white and pink guavas, respectively [49]. The flavour of the Costa Rican guava has been described as sweet with strong fruity, woody-spicy, and floral notes [53]. One hundred and seventy-three volatile compounds were isolated by simultaneous steam distillation-solvent extraction. The terpenes and terpenic derivatives were found in this fruit in major concentrations and were strong contributors to tropical fruit notes (Fig. 8.1). The aliphatic esters contributed much to its typical flavour. 

Volatile compounds isolated from strawberry guava fruit by simultaneous steam distillation-solvent extraction were identified by capillary gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and were characterised sensorially by sniffing GC [52]. Terpenes and terpenic derivatives were identified and were shown to contribute much to the typical strawberry guava flavour. The presence of many aliphatic esters and terpenic compounds is thought to contribute to the unique flavour of the strawberry guava fruit. 

Fig. 8.1 Acyclic, monocyclic, and bicyclic terpenes contribute to tropical fruit flavours to papaya 2 A -carene to mango 3jS-caryophyllene to girava fruit...

The free and bound flavour components of bacuri fruits were analysed by GG and GG-MS using XAD-amberlite separation. Seventy-five components were identified in the free volatile fraction, and the most abundant components were terpene alcohols. Among the saturated and unsaturated alcohols present in the... 

In this chapter chemical conversions of natural precursors resulting in flavour chemicals are discussed. The main groups of natural precursors are terpenes for all kinds of terpene derivatives, vanillin precursors like lignin and eugenol, sugars for Maillard-associated flavour chemicals, amino acids and molecules obtained by fermentation or available as residual streams of renewable resources. 

Terpenes important for both fragrances and flavours can be prepared from citral, such as citronellol, linalool, nerolidol, geraniol, farnesol and bisabolol. Citral is also an important starting material for the synthesis of vitamins A and E, carotenoids and other flavour and fragrance compounds like ionones. Most of the /3-ionone synthesised is probably used for vitamin A synthesis. 

The most important and frequently used terpene esters in flavours are the acetates of nerol, geraniol, citronellol, linalool and isoborneol [12], As discussed before, all these terpene alcohols are available both from renewable resources and from petrochemical origin. Acetic acid can be obtained from renewable resources by pyrolysis of wood as wood vinegar, and also by synthesis from petrochemical origin. 

Cysteine can be obtained by hydrolysis from cysteine-rich proteins in hair or feathers or from petrochemical sources. Cysteine is an important raw material in Maillard reactions for the preparation of process flavours, but it can also serve as a source of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide for the preparation of flavour chemicals, such as the terpene sulfur compounds mentioned in Sect. 13.2.4 and furfuryl mercaptan mentioned in Sect. 13.4.2.4. 

Fig. 23.1 Microbial routes from natural raw materials to and between natural flavour compounds (solid arrows). Natural raw materials are depicted within the ellipse. Raw material fractions are derived from their natural sources by conventional means, such as extraction and hydrolysis (dotted arrows). De novo indicates flavour compounds which arise from microbial cultures by de novo biosynthesis (e.g. on glucose or other carbon sources) and not by biotransformation of an externally added precursor. It should be noted that there are many more flavour compounds accessible by biocatalysis using free enzymes which are not described in this chapter, especially flavour esters by esterification of natural alcohols (e.g. aliphatic or terpene alcohols) with natural acids by free lipases. For the sake of completeness, the C6 aldehydes are also shown although only the formation of the corresponding alcohols involves microbial cells as catalysts. The list of flavour compounds shown is not intended to be all-embracing but focuses on the examples discussed in this chapter... 

Organic-aqueous media offer important advantages for the industrial applications of enzymatic and whole-cell catalysis when substrates are poorly soluble in water [15-17], This is the case for most of the flavour compounds like terpenes [18, 19], Use of an organic phase in the aqueous reaction system has become a current way to improve biotransformation processes. Some of them are described next. 

The isolation of terpenes from plants entails several problems (e.g, very low concentrations). Therefore other sources of these flavour compounds are searched for microorganisms for example (especially bacteria and fungi) are used for the production of terpenoids [22]. Since terpenoids are very important flavour and fragrance compounds, the biotransformation of terpenes offers a very interesting source of novel... 

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