• DOI:10.1021/jf102983v
• Corpus ID: 24485282

Improved characterization of the botanical origin of sugar by carbon-13 SNIF-NMR applied to ethanol.

@article{Thomas2010ImprovedCO,
  title={Improved characterization of the botanical origin of sugar by carbon-13 SNIF-NMR applied to ethanol.},
  author={Freddy Thomas and Celia Randet and Alexis Gilbert and Virginie Silvestre and Eric Jamin and Serge Akoka and G{\'e}rald S. Remaud and Nicolas Segebarth and Claude Guillou},
  journal={Journal of agricultural and food chemistry},
  year={2010},
  volume={58 22},
  pages={
          11580-5
        }
}

• F. Thomas, Celia Randet, +6 authors C. Guillou
• Published 28 October 2010
• Environmental Science
• Journal of agricultural and food chemistry

Until now, no analytical method, not even isotopic ones, had been able to differentiate between sugars coming from C4-metabolism plants (cane, maize, etc.) and some crassulacean acid metabolism plants (e.g., pineapple, agave) because in both cases the isotope distributions of the overall carbon-13/carbon-12 and site-specific deuterium/hydrogen isotope ratios are very similar. Following recent advances in the field of quantitative isotopic carbon-13 NMR measurements, a procedure for the analysis of the positional carbon-13/carbon-12 isotope ratios of ethanol derived from the sugars of pineapples and agave using the site-specific natural isotopic fractionation-nuclear magnetic resonance (SNIF-NMR) method is presented. It is shown that reproducible results can be obtained when appropriate analytical conditions are used. When applied to pineapple juice, this new method demonstrates a unique ability to detect cane and maize sugar, which are major potential adulterants, with a detection limit in the order of 15% of the total sugars, which provides an efficient mean of controlling the authenticity of juices made from this specific fruit. When applied to tequila products, this new method demonstrates a unique ability to unambiguously differentiate authentic 100% agave tequila, as well as misto tequila (made from at least 51% agave), from products made from a larger proportion of cane or maize sugar and therefore not complying with the legal definition of tequila.