SUPERCRITICAL-FLUID EXTRACTION AS A PREPARATIVE TOOL FOR STRAWBERRY AROMA ANALYSIS

To improve the aroma characterization of various strawberry cultivars, we tested supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) to determine its suita bility for the extraction of aroma compounds from fresh fruit, compari ng SFE results with traditional solvent extraction with dichloromethan e. Using SFE it was possible to recover the majority of the aroma comp ounds which can be also found in the solvent extract; patterns related to variety and degree of maturation were preserved. Our results showe d, however, that SFE is more selective and was able to recover the 'ch aracter impact' compound of wild strawberry. Our findings from the odo r analysis of furaneol standard emphasize the importance of using a mo re selective extraction procedure, and always combining instrumental d etection with sensory analysis.