Franco Biasioli
Fondazione Edmund Mach, Italy
Title: Endogenous and exogenous volatile compounds in breath as detected by PTR-MS
Biography
Biography: Franco Biasioli
Abstract
Among the different approaches to volatile organic compound (VOC) profiling, Proton Transfer Reaction Mass Spectrometry (PTR-MS), shows intriguing peculiarities: it is fast, non-invasive and can provide very high sensitivity. Moreover, recent technological advancements partly overcome its limitations in compound identification and quantification. Here, the use of PTR-MS for the real time measurement of the concentration of VOCs in breath is discussed with reference to two studies: i) the monitoring of exogenous flavor compounds during food consumption and ii) the monitoring of endogenous compounds as possible markers of diseases or diet. In the first study the nose-space concentration during coffee drinking has been compared with dynamic sensory methods to investigate the perceived effect of different roasting. Data indicates that nose-space concentration can be used to distinguish different coffee samples and different assessors and to identify markers of sensory quality which clearly show multimodal characteristics. In the second series of studies the breath of human and rats has been measured to assess whether VOC concentration can be related to diseases (cirrhosis and coeliac disease) or diet. Data indicates that markers of cirrhosis can be identified by breath analysis and that they are correlated with serum bilirubin while no evidence of breath markers can be found for coeliac disease if the patience follow a gluten free diet. In conclusion: PTR-MS allows the real time analysis of breath VOCs and can be used both for exogenous or endogenous compounds analysis to investigate flavor perception or markers of disease or diet.