Considerable effort has been devoted to analytical determinations of sugar and amino acid constituents of plant nectars, with the primary aim of understanding their ecological roles, yet few studies have reported more exhaustive organic compound inventories of plant nectars or extrafoliar nectars. This work evaluated the efficacy of four solvents (ethyl acetate, dichloromethane, toluene and hexane) to extract the greatest number of organic compound classes and unique compounds from extrafoliar nectar drops produced by Sansevieria spp. Aggregation of the results from each solvent revealed that 240 unique compounds were extracted in total, with 42.5% of those detected in multiple extracts. Aliphatic hydrocarbons dominated in all but the ethyl acetate extracts, with 44 unique aliphatic hydrocarbons detected in dichloromethane (DCM) extracts, followed by 41, 19 and 8 in hexane, toluene and ethyl acetate extracts, respectively. Hexane extracted the most unique compounds (79), followed by DCM (73), ethyl acetate (56) and toluene (32). Integrated total ion chromatographic peak areas of extracted compound classes were positively correlated with numbers of unique compounds detected within those classes. In addition to demonstrating that multi-solvent extraction with direct GC-MS detection is a suitable analytical approach for determining secondary nectar constituents, to the best of our knowledge, this study also represents: (i) the first attempt to inventory the secondary phytochemical constituents of Sansevieria spp. extrafoliar nectar secretions and (ii) the largest organic solvent extractable compound inventory reported for any plant matrix to date.

An essential dimension of food tasting (i.e., flavor) is olfactory stimulation by volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted therefrom. Here, we developed a novel analytical method based on solid-phase microextraction (SPME) sampling in argon-filled gas sampling bags with direct gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) determination to profile the volatile constituents of 31 homemade preserves prepared in South Dakota (USA) during the period 1950–1953. Volatile profiles varied considerably, but generally decreased in detected compounds, complexity, and intensity over three successive 2-h SPME sampling periods. Volatile profiles were generally predominated by aldehydes, alcohols, esters, ketones, and organic acids, with terpenoids constituting much of the pickled cucumber volatiles. Bisphenol-A (BPA) was also serendipitously detected and then quantified in 29 samples, at levels ranging from 3.4 to 19.2 μg/kg, within the range of levels known to induce endocrine disruption effects. Absence of BPA in two samples was attributed to their lids lacking plastic liners. As the timing of their preparation coincides with the beginning of BPA incorporation into consumer products, these jars may be some of the first BPA-containing products in the USA. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first effort to characterize BPA in and volatile profiles of rare historical foods with SPME.

Carbonaceous meteorites contributed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to the organic inventory of the primordial Earth where they may have reacted on catalytic clay mineral surfaces to produce quinones capable of functioning as redox species in emergent biomolecular systems. To address the feasibility of this hypothesis, we assessed the kinetics of anthracene (1) conversion to 9,10-anthraquinone (2) in the presence of montmorillonite clay (MONT) over the temperature range 25 to 250 °C. Apparent rates of conversion were concentration independent and displayed a sigmoidal relationship with temperature, and conversion efficiencies ranged from 0.027 to 0.066%. Conversion was not detectable in the absence of MONT or a sufficiently high oxidation potential (in this case, molecular oxygen (O)). These results suggest a scenario in which meteoritic 1 and MONT interactions could yield biologically important quinones in prebiotic planetary environments.