Comparative Metabolite Profiling of Traditional and Commercial Vinegars in Korea

Abstract

Vinegar, composed of various organic acids, amino acids, and volatile compounds, has been newly recognized as a functional food with health benefits. Vinegar is produced through alcoholic fermentation of various raw materials followed by acetic acid fermentation, and detailed processes greatly vary between different vinegar products. This study performed metabolite profiling of various vinegar products using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry to identify metabolites that are specific to vinegar production processes. In particular, seven traditional vinegars that underwent spontaneous and slow alcoholic and acetic acid fermentations were compared to four commercial vinegars that were produced through fast acetic acid fermentation using distilled ethanol. A total of 102 volatile and 78 nonvolatile compounds were detected, and the principal component analysis of metabolites clearly distinguished between the traditional and commercial vinegars. Ten metabolites were identified as specific or significantly different compounds depending on vinegar production processes, most of which had originated from complex microbial metabolism during traditional vinegar fermentation. These process-specific compounds of vinegars may serve as potential biomarkers for fermentation process controls as well as authenticity and quality evaluation.

Research method of rapid determination of chiral pesticide fenpropathrin enantiomers in fruit and vegetable puree by supercritical fluid chromatography

“…At present, there are a variety of methods, such as GC [5,6], CEC [7,8], GC-MS [9,10], LC-MS/MS [11][12][13], and HPLC [14][15][16], which are widely used in the field of chiral compound separation. Among them, the CEC chromatographic peak shape is good, but the analysis time is long; GC and GC-MS have high sensitivity and good resolution, but mainly analyze compounds with low boiling point and good thermal stability; HPLC features good resolution, but the organic reagents are consumed in large amounts; LC-MS/MS enjoys high accuracy, but the instruments used are expensive.…”