Fragrance compounds of pomelo (citrus grandis) blossom flowers from various extraction techniques

Abstract

Citrus grandis or pomelo is the largest citrus fruit with thick peel that Malaysian usually consumed as fresh fruits, juices or in cultural festival. So far, fruit is the main production of pomelo plantation and listed among 16 major fruits for commercial plantation in Malaysia (DOA, 2008). There are other side of the pomelo trees that can be utilized, for example the flowers. Pomelo trees have large creamy white flowers that consist of 3-7 thick petals. The advantage is those flowers are strongly scented and described as having a floral-, jasmine- and orange-like fragrance that people did not realize before. Citrus spp. has obtained great interest among researchers on their valuable compounds especially for flavanoid and monoterpenoid production. The monoterpenoids are the major component of many essential oils and as such, have economic importance as flavours and perfumes. No study had been reported on C. grandis flower compounds. As part of our interest on its fragrance, the compounds of this flower were examined. Demand for essential oils keep on increasing for the utilization and consequent industrial processing that widely used in fragrances, flavours, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Most essential oils are obtained directly from the plant materials in small amount whose availability may be limited (Vanisree and Hsin, 2005). The use of plant materials however, cannot ensure the continuous supply due to shortage of land for plantation and increasing cost in agriculture sector. Method of extraction is crucial in the study of natural products composition and the selection of the methods is usually based on how far the compounds can be maintained prior to analysis. Solvent extraction among commonly used especially from the flowers compare to steam distillation. Hot steam usually would alter and destroy the floral accords that determine the characteristic of the flowers. SPME is a fast and easy conducted sampling device as described from many studies (Flamini et. al., 2003). It is a solventless technique that is based on the partitioning of volatiles between the sample matrixes, the headspace above the sample, and a stationary phase coated on a fused-silica fiber. Furthermore, SPME permits the sampling of samples in considerably smaller amounts.