ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Food Chemistry
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1629925
This article is part of the Research TopicApplications of metabolomics in the formation of food flavorView all 7 articles
Differentiation of volatile organic compounds in chili powders of different spiciness levels via E-nose, HS-GC-IMS, and chemometrics
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shaanxi University of Technology, Hanzhong, China
- 2cairo university, Giza, Egypt
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Introduction: Chili powder is a widely used seasoning whose pungency largely depends on its capsaicin content and volatile compounds.Methods: This study evaluated the capsaicin levels and pungency of three commercial chili powders labeled light, medium, and strong using a pungency meter. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were analyzed via electronic nose and headspace gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (HS-GC-IMS) coupled with multivariate statistical analyses.Results: Capsaicin concentrations in the medium and strong chili powders were significantly greater than those in the light group (p < 0.01). The Scoville heat unit (SHU) values were 604 (light), 1585 (medium), and 1733 (strong). The electronic nose successfully differentiated samples on the basis of spiciness level. HS-GC-IMS identified 48 VOCs, mainly aldehydes (51.74-55.55%) and ketones (29.93-32.09%). Variable importance projection (VIP > 1, p < 0.05) highlighted 21 marker volatiles, whereas fold change analysis (FC > 2 or < 0.5) identified 14 differential compounds across sample groups. Key odorants such as (E,E)-2,4-heptadienal, butanal, 3-methylbutanal, and 2,3-butanedione were associated with flavor differences among the chili powders.Conclusions: Chili powders with varying spiciness levels exhibit notable differences in capsaicin content, VOC profiles, and distinctive flavor markers, which can be effectively characterized through integrated sensory and chemical analyses.
Keywords: Chili powder, electronic nose, headspace gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry, Volatile Organic Compounds, chemometrics, Relative odor activity values
Received: 16 May 2025; Accepted: 03 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao, Zhang, Ran, Yang, Dong, He, Jin and Abd El-Aty. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Wengang Jin, Shaanxi University of Technology, Hanzhong, China
A. M. Abd El-Aty, cairo university, Giza, Egypt
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