IMPROVEMENT OF THE VOLATILE COMPONENTS OF CORK FROM QUERCUS-SUBER L BY AN AUTOCLAVING PROCEDURE

The volatiles of cork slabs submitted to a novel industrial treatment, autoclaving, were compared with the volatiles of the untreated slabs to establish the usefulness of this treatment as a cleanup procedure. The condensed steams corresponding to the first and a second autoclavi ng process were also analyzed. The volatile compounds of cork and of a utoclaved condensed steam were extracted by simultaneous distillation- extraction and analyzed by gas chromatography and combined gas chromat ography-high-resolution mass spectrometry. Cork. slabs treated with st eam under pressure showed smaller amounts of the volatile components w ith musty, moldy, and related odors, such as 3-methyl-1-butanol, 1-oct anol, and guaiacol and other mold metabolites. The condensed steam con tained compounds corresponding to those extracted from the cork. The a utoclaving process has potential for industrial use to clean the cork and to reduce volatiles of microbial origin in cork samples.