Development and validation of a High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Diode Array Detection method for the determination of aging markers in tequila

A critical review on the assessment of the quality and authenticity of Tequila by different analytical techniques: Recent advances and perspectives

Currently, the authenticity and traceability of Tequila are determined in an inspection process carried out by the Tequila Regulatory Council. However, in recent years, the authorities have seized illegal alcoholic products that are marketed as Tequila without being so, making it necessary to strengthen the current methods of detecting counterfeiting and/or adulteration. Therefore, it is important to establish a review of the current analytical techniques that have been proposed to solve this problem. In this review, emphasis is placed on the analysis of the analytical techniques that have been used to consolidate a profile of authenticity and quality in Tequila, thus highlighting new auxiliary analytical techniques to the current verification process, establishing future validation opportunities in terms of international quality control. The use of isotopic ratios stands out as the most robust technique because it establishes the type of sugar source used and the maturation time of the manufacturing process.

Electronic Eye Based on RGB Analysis for the Identification of Tequilas

The present work reports the development of a biologically inspired analytical system known as Electronic Eye (EE), capable of qualitatively discriminating different tequila categories. The reported system is a low-cost and portable instrumentation based on a Raspberry Pi single-board computer and an 8 Megapixel CMOS image sensor, which allow the collection of images of Silver, Aged, and Extra-aged tequila samples. Image processing is performed mimicking the trichromatic theory of color vision using an analysis of Red, Green, and Blue components (RGB) for each image's pixel. Consequently, RGB absorbances of images were evaluated and preprocessed, employing Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to visualize data clustering. The resulting PCA scores were modeled with a Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) that accomplished the qualitative classification of tequilas. A Leave-One-Out Cross-Validation (LOOCV) procedure was performed to evaluate classifiers' performance. The proposed system allowed the identification of real tequila samples achieving an overall classification rate of 90.02%, average sensitivity, and specificity of 0.90 and 0.96, respectively, while Cohen's kappa coefficient was 0.87. In this case, the EE has demonstrated a favorable capability to correctly discriminated and classified the different tequila samples according to their categories.

Detection of aromatic compounds in tequila through the use of surface plasmon resonance

For an expert nose, the aroma of a beverage is a fingerprint that can be used to certify its authenticity, distinguish between distillation processes, or even identify the raw material used to fabricate it. In this work, we propose a simple, automatic, and repeatable optical method, which can be used as a first and quick test to authenticate tequila samples. This method is based on the measurement of beam intensity changes, using the surface plasmon resonance technique, operating at a fixed angle. We observed that each tequila, depending on the alcohol content and aging process, produces a specific change in measured intensity level.

Sensitive and selective determination of phenolic compounds from aromatic plants using an electrochemical detection coupled with HPLC method

INTRODUCTION

Phenolic compounds contained in essential oils from plants are responsible for their anti-oxidant capacity. The natural extract from each aromatic plant is characterised by a typical ratio of phenolic components, so each one of the essential oils shows different properties.

OBJECTIVE

The development of a simple reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method for the determination of phenolic compounds from aromatic plants using spectrophotometric detection with a diode-array and electrochemical detection with amperometric and coulometric detectors.

METHODS

Chromatographic conditions are optimised to separate vanillin, eugenol, thymol and carvacrol using spectrophotometric detection. Acetonitrile and methanol are studied as mobile-phase organic modifiers. The hydrodynamic curves are obtained for both electrochemical detection modes and the principal values of merit are calculated. The proposed methodology is applied to determine the four analytes in real samples.

RESULTS

The shortest elution times and the highest electrochemical signals are achieved using 65% methanol solution in 0.1 mol/L acetic acid-acetate buffer as the mobile phase. Potential values of 0.925 V for amperometric detection and 0.500 V for coulometric detection are chosen as working potentials. The limits of detection (LOD) for the compounds studied ranged between 9.7-17 µg/L and 0.81-3.1 µg/L in amperometric and coulometric detection modes, respectively. In general, the obtained LODs are better than those previously reported.

CONCLUSION

The low LODs obtained using coulometric detection make this methodology very competitive and adequate for quality control of these phenolic compounds in comparison with others, such as GC-MS, that are more expensive and complicated to use than the RP-HPLC method with coulometric detection.

Smelling in chemically complex environments: an optofluidic Bragg fiber array for differentiation of methanol adulterated beverages

A novel optoelectronic nose for analysis of alcohols (ethanol and methanol) in chemically complex environments is reported. The cross-responsive sensing unit of the optoelectronic nose is an array of three distinct hollow-core infrared transmitting photonic band gap fibers, which transmit a specific band of IR light depending on their Bragg mirror structures. The presence of alcohol molecules in the optofluidic core quenches the fiber transmissions if there is an absorption band of the analyte overlapping with the transmission band of the fiber; otherwise they remain unchanged. The cumulative response data of the fiber array enables rapid, reversible, and accurate discrimination of alcohols in chemically complex backgrounds such as beer and fruit juice. In addition, we observed that humidity of the environment has no effect on the response matrix of the optoelectronic nose, which is rarely achieved in gas-sensing applications. Consequently, it can be reliably used in virtually any environment without precalibration for humidity or drying the analytes. Besides the discussed application in counterfeit alcoholic beverages, with its superior sensor parameters, this novel concept proves to be a promising contender for many other applications including food quality control, environmental monitoring, and breath analysis for disease diagnostics.

Determination of quality and adulteration of tequila through the use of surface plasmon resonance

In this work, the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technique is used to determine the quality or adulteration of tequila beverages. Graphic analyses of the position and width of the SPR curve are related to the complex refractive index of the sample, showing differentiated regions where one can easily and unambiguously identify white, aged, or extra-aged tequilas, and even adulterated or low quality tequilas. The curves generated by aged and extra-aged tequilas, with respect to those obtained from white tequilas, are wider, while the resonant peak shifts towards larger angles. This behavior should be attributed to the aging process. The resonance curve is generated in 20 s, minimizing the variations of the SPR curve parameters due to temperature fluctuations.

Rapid determination of phenolic compounds and alkaloids of carob flour by improved liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

An improved chromatographic method was developed using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to identify and quantify phenolic compounds and alkaloids, theobromine and caffeine, in carob flour samples. The developed method has been validated in terms of speed, sensitivity, selectivity, peak efficiency, linearity, reproducibility, limits of detection, and limits of quantification. The chromatographic method allows the identification and quantification of 20 phenolic compounds, that is, phenolic acids, flavonoids, and their aglycone and glucoside forms, together with the determination of the alkaloids, caffeine and theobromine, at low concentration levels all in a short analysis time of less than 20 min.