Acta Alimentaria, Vol. 39 (3), pp. 337342 (2010) DOI: 10.1556/AAlim.39.2010.3.

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CHANGES IN VOLATILE COMPOUNDS DURING THE FERMENTATION/AGING OF NONI FRUIT (MORINDA CITRIFOLIA L.) BY tHE ANCIENt tRADItIONAL PROCESS
J.a. pinoa*, e. Mrqueza and d. CaStrob
a

Instituto de Investigaciones para la Industria Alimentaria, Carretera al Guatao km 3, La Habana, C.P. 19200. Cuba b Instituto Finlay, Ave 27, La Habana. Cuba (Received: 2 June 2009; accepted: 7 January 2010)

Changes of volatile compounds of noni juice during the traditional process of fermentation/aging was studied by means of HS-SPME and GC-MS. Major acids, octanoic and hexanoic, diminished their concentration; while esters of ethanol, 1-butanol and 1-hexanol, with their flavour fruity notes, increased. The concentration of esters of methanol and 3-methyl-3-buten-1-ol decreased during the fermentation/aging process, whereas major alcohols of noni juice, 1-hexanol and 1-octanol, increased their concentration during the process. During the 60 days of the process the volatile composition of the noni juice had reached stability. These chemical changes justify that fermented juice possesses a flavour less pungent than fresh juice due to an important decrease in the hexanoic and octanoic contents, as well as a greater fruity note due to the increment in ester concentrations. Keywords: Morinda citrifolia, noni juice, fermentation, aging, volatiles

Morinda citrifolia L., commonly known as noni, is a plant typically found in the Hawaiian and Tahitian islands. It is believed to be one of the most important plants brought to Hawaii by the first Polynesians (Morton, 1992). Different parts of the tree, including the fruit, have been used traditionally as a folk remedy for many diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and cancer (SanG et al., 2002; CHan-BlanCo et al., 2006; Potterat & HaMBurGer, 2007). The consumption of the fruit juice for improving health in many ways has shown a tremendous growth worldwide. Noni fruit juice and juice products are usually produced in Pacific islands by a variety of methods: the traditional juice is both drip-extracted and lactic acid fermented/aged for at least two months, while the non-traditional method of juice extraction is by pressing or squeezing the juice from ripe fruits (RuSSell, 2000). Although the fruits of noni have been used as a food and folk remedy very few reports on their chemical composition are available, particularly related to the non-volatile components (WanG, et al., 1999; RoSS, 2001; KaMiya et al., 2004; CHan-BlanCo et al., 2006; Potterat & HaMBurGer, 2007). Only two papers are related to the volatile compounds of the fruit (Farine et al., 1996; LaCHenMeier et al., 2006; Pino et al., 2009). Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) is a rapid, direct, inexpensive, and efficient technique for sampling different matrixes. SPME is a multi-analyte extraction technique that requires no solvents; it minimizes artefact formation by heat and provides linear results over a wide range of analyte concentrations in a large variety of matrixes. In the field of food
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Phone: (+537) 202 09 83; e-mail: jpino@iiia.edu.co 02393006/$ 20.00 2010 Akadmiai Kiad, Budapest