Volatile Bioactive Components of Boiled and Roasted African Walnut (Tetracapidium conophorum) Extracts Using GC-MS

Abstract

The effects of processing (boiling and roasting) on the bioactive components of African walnut extracts using gas chromatography mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) was investigated. The dried powder of the raw, boiled and roasted African walnuts was extracted using n-hexane. All the prepared extracts were analyzed by GC-MS to identify and characterize the volatile compounds present in the crude extracts. GC-MS results revealed the presence of 13, 13 and 16 volatile compounds in raw, boiled and roasted extracts respectively. The most prevailing compounds were 9,12,15-octadecatrienoic acid, (Z,Z,Z)- (67.61%) in raw extract, 9,12,15-otadecatrienoic acid, (Z, Z,Z)- (30.33%) in boiled extract and Ethyl 9,12,15-octadecatrienoate (54.04%) in roasted extract. The results show that processing, particularly roasting, has effects on the bioactive components of the African walnut extracts. However, the extracts of the raw and boiled African walnut possess major bioactive compounds and further identification of different biologically active compounds in the roasted extracts could be studied.

Keywords: Extraction, bioactive compounds, African walnut, GC-MS, volatile.