title: Vinegar Metabolomics: An Explorative Study of Commercial Balsamic Vinegars Using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry.
abstract: Balsamic vinegar is a popular food condiment produced from cooked grape must by two successive fermentation (anaerobic and aerobic) processes. Although many studies have been performed to determine the composition of major metabolites, including sugars and aroma compounds, no study has been undertaken yet to characterize the comprehensive metabolite composition of balsamic vinegars. Here, we present the first metabolomics study of commercial balsamic vinegars by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The combination of three GC-MS methods allowed us to detect >1500 features in vinegar samples, of which 123 metabolites were accurately identified, including 25 amino acids, 26 carboxylic acids, 13 sugars and sugar alcohols, four fatty acids, one vitamin, one tripeptide and over 47 aroma compounds. Moreover, we identified for the first time in vinegar five volatile metabolites: acetin, 2-methylpyrazine, 2-acetyl-1-pyroline, 4-anisidine and 1,3-diacetoxypropane. Therefore, we demonstrated the capability of metabolomics for detecting and identifying large number of metabolites and some of them could be used to distinguish vinegar samples based on their origin and potentially quality.
authors.affiliation: The New Zealand Institute for Plant &amp; Food Research Limited, Private Bag 92169, Auckland 1142, New Zealand. Farhana.Pinu@plantandfood.co.nz.
authors.forename: Farhana R
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Pinu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, State University of Feira de Santana, Feira de Santana 44036-900, Brazil. samuelmicrobiologia@gmail.com.|CAPES Foundation, Ministry of Education of Brazil, Bras&#237;lia DF 70040-020, Brazil. samuelmicrobiologia@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: de Carvalho-Silva
authors.affiliation: Agro-industry Microbiology Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences, State University of Santa Cruz, Ilh&#233;us 45662-900, Brazil. aptuetanabaro@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ana Paula
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Trovatti Uetanabaro
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1010, New Zealand. s.villas-boas@auckland.ac.nz.
authors.forename: Silas G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Villas-Boas
keywords: amino acids; aroma compounds; fatty acids; geographic indication; metabolite profiling; metabolomics; organic acids