A range of compounds was found in the headspace above the
turmeric curry sauce by GC–MS analysis (Fig. 1c; Table 2) with
a-phellandrene being the most abundant component. MSNose analysis of the headspace indicated a strong signal at m/z 137 and
inspection of the compounds in Table 2 indicates that all eleven
could form an ion at m/z 137 either by protonation to produce a
protonated molecular ion or through the protonation and dehydration
process described previously for linalool. Accordingly, the ion
at m/z 137 was selected as a marker ion for turmeric.
Given that no unique ions were found for the three major
spices, aroma release experiments were designed using single major
spices in the curry sauce recipe to avoid any interference and
potential miscalculation of aroma release. Assuming that the tentative
identifications of the key headspace volatiles were correct, the
equilibrium headspace concentrations of key spice volatiles above
a 10 g oil/100 g sauce sample were estimated as coriander 13 nL
linalool/L, cumin 34 nL cuminaldehyde/L and turmeric 55 lL phellandrene/
L using estimated partition coefficients (EpiSuite).