Volatile Constituents of Litchi Pericarp.

The litchi ( Litchi chinensis Sonn. ), an exotic fruit in southeast Asia, has an unusual warm-floral and sweet citrus flavor, and is popular in the supermarkets worldwide. In China, annual litchi production is about 1. 5 million tons. Litchi pericarp, generally considered as the waste, accounts for approximately 15 percent of the total weight of fresh fruit. The litchi has been examined for its nonvolatile acids, amino acids, sugar, and mineral content and the effect of γ irradiation upon it. Few works, however, have been reported on the fruit volatiles, especially the pericarp. This paper presents an analysis of the volatile components of the essential oil of litchi pericarp extracted by hydro- distillation method and the crashed dried litchi pericarp using solid phase microextraction (SPME), which shows advantages of avoiding the use of clean-up steps and the hazardous solvents, as sample preparation procedure. Instrumental analysis was carried out by Gas Chromatography (GC) -Mass Spectrometry (MS) and Gas Chromatography (GC)-Flame Ionization Detector(FID). Compounds were identified mainly by retention times, mass spectra and retention indexes that were compared with the ones found in commercially available libraries NIST05, WILEY275. The results showed that litchi pericarp contains significant amounts of biological active volatile compounds like α-Zingiberene, α-Curcumene β-Selinene and others, which can make litchi waste profitable, and also can be taken as an important bioactive substances resource to produce functional food. Worth mentioning, it is the first work to analyze volatile constituents in litchi pericarp using solid phase microextraction (SPME) method. The function of zingiberene and curcumene as insecticides, repellents, and insect feeding deterrents has been previously reported. Composition of ginger oil prepared from fresh ginger rhizomes, Zingiber officinale Roscoe (Zingiberaceae) was determined by gas chromatography (GC) and GC-mass spectrometric techniques. The main sesquiterpene hydrocarbons identified were alpha-zingiberene (27-30%), alpha-curcumene (8-9%), beta-sesquiphellandrene (4.8%). and bisabolene (3.2%). Pell of lychee can be potentially used as a biorational source of zingiberene and curcumene. Dear Sauro: I`m glad that you feel better now. Don`t worry about your "rudeness". On the contrary, I didn`t consider that your behaviors were rude to me at all. It`s very normal to me to listen to my friend talking about some problems he encountered. I`m pleased to share with you some of your feelings. As I said before, you are very impotant to me in my life. It`s not just a sentence, but an important conclusion or concept. (Sorry for my poor English, I couldn`t find the proper words at this moment.) Anyway, the most important thing for me and the people who care about you is your health. So please take care and be aware of some potential risks. I`m sorry to reply you so late. Because I caght cold last Saturday. I cancelled the trip to Florence to have a rest at home. Don`t worry I will be better soon. In the attachment, you should find the application form for Italian students. Sorry for my carelessness last week. Going to the call for proposal you sent to me, I will think about and take care about it. Thank you for infoming me. Wish you a pleasant day.