Volatile compounds in five starches

Volatile compounds in commercial wheat, corn, potato, waxy corn. and tapioc a starches and in laboratory-prepared wheat, corn, and potato starches were collected, separated, and identified by a purge and trap concentrator (P&T ) interfaced to a gas chromatograph (GC) equipped with a Fourier transform infrared detector (FTIRD) and a mass selective detector (MSD). Hexanal was the most abundant compound in the torn and potato starches and in the labor atory-prepared wheat starch as determined by total ion chromatogram (TIC) p eak areas. Hexanal was the third most abundant compound in commercial wheat starch after 2-ethyl-1-hexanol and benzaldehyde. Among the volatile organi cs, the level of aldehydes was the highest, followed by alcohols, ketones, benzenes, esters, and terpenes. Specific compounds identified, the majority of which appear to be degradation products of lipid peroxidation, include hexanal, heptanal, octanal, nonanal, decanal, benzaldehyde, 2-propanone, 2- propanol, 1-butanol, 2-ethyl-1-hexanol, methylbenzene, and tetradecane. Wax y corn starch, which released a substantially higher level of total volatil es than all other starches, contained large amounts of pentyl, 2-methyl-1-b utyl, benzyl, and isobornyl acetates; and citronella and 1,8-cineole. Tapio ca starch contained few volatiles but did contain an increased level of 2-p ropanol. No alcohols occurred in the commercial corn starch. Terpene compou nds were detected only in commercial potato, waxy corn, and tapioca starche s. Many volatiles detected in wheal and corn starches also were detected in the kernels of their commercial samples.