Qualitative Analysis of Aroma Components in Beer Using Peak Deconvolution

Introduction

The gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GC-MS), which has excellent qualitative analysis capabilities, is used in analyses of the aroma components in foods and beverages. However, when the sample contains heavy matrix or is highly concentrated by pretreatment, many peaks are detected, and the target components may be hidden beneath other peaks. In some cases, it may be difficult to discover the target components from the total ion chromatogram (TIC). The Automated Mass Spectral Deconvolution and Identification System (AMDIS) program supplied by NIST carries out peak detection by extracting a single spectrum from overlapping mass spectra by deconvoluting the GCMS data, and also searches all detected peaks from the mass spectrum library and identifies the detected compounds. Deconvolution makes it possible to detect and identify peaks, even when the target peak is overlapped by an adjoining peak. This article reports the results of identification of the aroma components in beer by using peak deconvolution.

March 3, 2020 GMT