Volatile compounds from oils extracted from cactus seeds (Opuntia ficus-indica) of five regions of Morocco were analyzed by dynamic headspace-GC/MS. Aroma active compounds were characterized by olfactometry. A total of 18 compounds was detected with hexanal, 2-methyl propanal, acetaldehyde, acetic acid, acetoin and 2,3-butanedione as most abundant. Olfactometric analysis showed that those compounds are aroma active; therefore, cactus seed oil flavor can be attributed to those compounds. Moreover, the effect of roasting of cactus seeds on the composition of volatile compounds in the oil was investigated. Especially the concentration of compounds known as products from the Maillard reaction increased significantly with roasting time such as furfural, furan, 3-methyl furan, 2-butanone, thiophene, 2, 3- dithiabutane, methyl pyrazine, 2-methyl pyrimidine, 2-metoxy phenol, dimethyl trisulfide and 5-methyl furfural.

Phenolic compounds extracted from cactus seed oil were identified for the first time by HPLC-ESI-qToF-MS and subsequently quantified by HPLC-DAD. A total of 7 compounds were identified, vanillin, syringaldehyde, and ferulaldehyde were found to be the most abundant ones. The effect of geographical origin and roasting process of cactus seeds was evaluated. Differences between different locations were not found, however the roasting process had a significant effect on the amount of phenolic compounds. The amount of syringaldehyde, p-coumaric acid, p-coumaric acid ethyl ester, and ferulaldehyde increased during the roasting process. Nevertheless, the concentration of vanillin was not influenced by roasting. It was demonstrated that the increase of those compounds was due to the thermal degradation of lignin from the seeds during the roasting process of seeds.

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