Hamburg 2009 – scientific programme

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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik

MO 3: Biomoleküle 2

MO 3.1: Talk

Monday, March 2, 2009, 16:30–16:45, VMP 6 HS-F

Raman Spectroscopy as a Rapid Tool for the Determination of Free Fatty Acid in Extra Virgin Olive Oil — •Rasha Hassanein, Patrice Donfack, and Arnulf Materny — Jacobs university Bremen, Germany

Raman spectroscopy provides useful information about the molecular structure even in complex systems due to the fingerprint properties of the vibrational spectra. It has proven a potential analytical tool in food analysis, e.g. for oil authentication, classification, and in adulteration detection. In our research, we have demonstrated the potential of Raman spectroscopic with visible light (VIS) excitation for the determination of the free fatty acid (FFA) content of extra virgin olive oil in combination with multivariate analysis. To the best of our knowledge, none of the previous research works reported the use of VIS Raman for the FFA content measurement. However, this method offers many advantages; high sensitivity and high spectral resolution can be achieved in short time using a simple Raman setup. Another very important advantage is that the VIS excitation helps to resonantly excite (electronic resonance) vibrational bands of important constituents of oils such as carotenoid pigment molecules, which due to their low concentration cannot be detected using e.g. IR Raman techniques. In our approach, a model was constructed with partial least square regression in order to predict the FFA content in extra virgin olive oil based on the VIS Raman data. The regression results showed a strong correlation between FFA content and the presence of carotenoids.