The components from exotic fruit Spondias mombin were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. A total of 261 compounds were identified, accounting for 18.6 ppm of the extracted fruit. They were identified according to their GC retention time on a polar column and their mass spectra. They are divided as follows: 32 hydrocarbons (4.1%), three sulfur compounds (trace), 126 esters (56.2%), eight lactones (10.4%), 22 carbonyl compounds (3.2%), 16 acids (19.5%), 37 alcohols and ethers (5.5%) and 17 miscellaneous compounds (1.1%). Of these 261 compounds, 83 have already been described in the literature to be present in Spondias mombin aroma. The major volatile products identified were γ-hexalactone (0.9 ppm), 2(5H)-furanone (0.7 ppm), methyl hexadecanoate (0.6 ppm) and ethyl 3-hydroxyhexanoate (0.5 ppm).

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Key Word Index

Spondias mombin, Anacardiaceae, fruit volatiles, yellow mombin, hog plum, γ-hexalactone, 2(5H)-furanone, methyl hexadecanoate, ethyl 3-hydroxyhexanoate.

Introduction

Spondias mombin is one of the two Spondias species with S. cytherea Sonn., which grows in the French Polynesian islands. Mombin fruit is eaten by a few persons as an intact fruit or in juice form. Its single natural production is at the end of the warm period (April-May).

Yellow mombin from African, Mexican and Brazilian trees have been examined (1-3). Adedeji et al. reported the presence of 46 free or glycosidically bound compounds in African fruit (1). Sagrero-Nieves et al. identified 48 compounds in Mexican mombin (2). More recently, analysis of volatile compounds of taperebá and cajá, two varieties of Brazilian mombin, were performed by Ceva-Antunes et al., using simultaneous distillation and extraction (SDE) and solid phase microextraction (SPME). In taperebá, 46 substances were identified by SDE and 48 by SPME. In cajá fruit, 42 compounds were analyzed by SDE and 47 by SPME (3). Some changes in physical and chemical composition during maturation of fruits were also analyzed by Bora et al. (4). In addition, the essential oil composition of leaves of S. mombin from Brazil has been described by Lemos et al. (5).

While mombin fruit flavor and leaf oil composition have already been analyzed in previous studies, this work presents a distinctive extraction method, already tested for the determination of the aromatic composition of pineapple (6). Moreover, the aroma compound extract was chromatographed on silica gel low pressure column prior to GC and GC/MS analysis. The silica gel chromatographic fractionation has led to the determination of some newly identified compounds in the fresh pulp of yellow inombin.

Experimental

Reagents: The solvents (acetone, dichloromethane, hexane, diethyl ether and methanol) were Normapur grade from Prolabo (Prolabo, Paris cedex, France) and were redistilled prior to use. The calcium and sodium chloride salts, anhydrous magnesium sulfate, silica gel C60 were purchased from Prolabo, and tetradecane from Aldrich (Aldrich, Chemical Co., Gillingham Dorset, England). Fresh mature ripe fruits were collected in April 2002 from trees growing in Atimaono Golf Club (Tahiti Island, French Polynesia).

Sample extraction and preparation: Ten kg of fresh ripe mombin were manually triturated to give 6.6 kg of pulp and peel. The homogenized mixture was blended with 20% volume of 1.0 M CaCl^sub 2^, for 1 min to inactivate enzymes (6-8), yielding 8.25 L of nectar juice (V). The batch of the nectar juice was extracted with acetone (2.5 x 5) during 5 inin, at room temperature. The extract was passed through a paper filter to discard all trie insoluble material. Sodium chloride was then added to the clear mombin juice leading to aqueous and organic separated phases. These two phases were extracted simultaneously with dichloromethane ( 2/1 ). The organic phase (a dichloromethane-acetone mixture) was dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate. The anhydrous organic phase was carefully concentrated to ca. 2 mL using a rotary evaporator at 40°C. The aliquot of the organic phase led to an estimated weight of 1.08 g for 10 kg of fresh ripe mombin.

The organic aroma extract was then chromatographied on

a silica gel column (150 mm x 10 mm) using 100 mL of hexane (Fl), dichloromethane (F2), diethyl ether (F3) and methanol (F4). The four eluted fractions were slowly evaporated under dried nitrogen gas to approximately 100 µL.