GC-MS analysis of the flavor and aroma components of pumpkin pie spice

CHED 212

Adam Butler, Gerald Shovlin, Kate Willis, Julie Wagner, Faith Wydra, and Donald E. Mencer, mencer@wilkes.edu. Department of Chemistry, Wilkes University, 84 West South Street, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766
Flavor chemistry is a complex interplay between the tastes and smells of chemical components and how they interacts with our senses. Pumpkin pie spice is a mixture of various common spices including, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Extractions of the flavor and aroma components from pumpkin pie spice and each of the constituent spices were performed. The resulting samples were analyzed using GC-MS to identify the major and minor molecular species present in each of the spice components. The origins of these molecular species were determined using a set of individual spice standards. Some of the major flavor and aroma components include, cinnamaldehyde, singiberene, eugenol,coumarin and curcumene.