Classification of Almond Cultivars Using Oil Volatile Compound Determination by HS‐SPME–GC–MS

Protected designations of origin “Alicante” and “Jijona” nougats are manufactured products produced using raw materials from Eastern Spain. In order to avoid adulteration practices, determination of volatile compounds from three different almond cultivars (Spanish Guara and Marcona and, from the USA, Butte) was performed to obtain a set of parameters for discrimination between Spanish and American cultivars. Factorial experimental design was applied for the development of a headspace solid‐phase microextraction–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (HS‐SPME–GC–MS) analytical method for isolation and determination of the volatile compounds in almond oils. Main HS‐SPME variables optimized were extraction temperature, extraction time, and stirring speed. Several volatile compounds including aldehydes, alkanes, alcohols and aromatic hydrocarbons were identified. Multivariate techniques were applied for classification and discrimination of the different almond cultivars studied. Specifically, cluster and stepwise linear discriminant analysis (LDA) were used, with LDA showing the best performance. The results obtained demonstrated that the proposed method combined with multivariate statistical analysis can be successfully applied for discrimination among different almond cultivars.