title: Quantitation of twelve metals in tequila and mezcal spirits as authenticity parameters.
abstract: In this paper the differentiation of silver, gold, aged and extra-aged tequila and mezcal has been carried out according to their metal content. Aluminum, barium, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium, sodium, strontium, zinc, and sulfur were determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. The concentrations found for each element in the samples were used as chemical descriptors for characterization purposes. Principal component analysis, linear discriminant analysis and artificial neural networks were applied to differentiate types of tequila and mezcal. Using probabilistic neural networks 100% of success in the classification was obtained for silver, gold, extra-aged tequila and mezcal. In the case of aged tequila 90% of samples were successfully classified. Sodium, potassium, calcium, sulfur, magnesium, iron, strontium, copper and zinc were the most discriminant elements.
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Seville, Seville, Spain.
authors.forename: Silvia Guillermina
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Ceballos-Magańa
authors.forename: José Marcos
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Jurado
authors.forename: María Jesús
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Martín
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pablos
mesh_terms: D027882:Agave / Q000737:chemistry*; D000434:Alcoholic Beverages / Q000032:analysis* / Q000145:classification*; D005511:Food Handling / Q000379:methods; D008670:Metals / Q000032:analysis; D018547:Plant Stems / Q000737:chemistry; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic
chemical_list: D008670:Metals