Quantification of 4-hydroxy-2,5-dimethyl-3-furanone in fruit samples using solid phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Furaneol is an important aroma compound. It is very difficult to extract furaneol from food matrices and separate it on a gas chromatography column due to its high polarity and instability. A new quantitative method was developed to quantify furaneol in aqueous samples by the use of derivatization/solid phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The derivatization was carried out by reacting pentafluorobenzyl bromide with furaneol in basic solutions at elevated temperatures. The derivative was stable and less polar so that SPME-GC/MS could be applied for extraction, separation and detection. The automated analytical method had a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.5 ng mL(-1), a limit of quantification (LOQ) of 2 ng mL(-1), a repeatability of 9.5%, and a linear range from 2 to 500 ng mL(-1). The method was applied to analyze fruit samples. And it was found that the concentrations of furaneol in tomato ranged from 95 to 173 μg kg(-1), in strawberries ranged from 1663 to 4852 μg kg(-1). The results were verified with a LC procedure. To facilitate analytical method development, some physico-chemical parameters for furaneol were determined in this work. Its solubility in water was determined as 0.315 g mL(-1) (25°C). Its LogD in water and LogP in 0.1 M phosphate buffer were -0.133 and 0.95 (20 °C), respectively. Its pKa was 8.56 (20 °C).