Carlo Bicchi

University of Torino (Italy) · Scienza e Tecnologia del Farmaco

In this perspective article, several internationally recognized experts, members of the editorial team of this journal, discuss a selection of current hot topics identified in Food Science and Foodomics. The topics are comprised of the main areas of Food Science and Foodomics, namely, food safety, food authenticity, food processing, and food bioact...

Iris spp. rhizomes (commonly known as orris rhizomes) are a precious raw material used in perfumery, as sources of high-value violet odorant substances, mainly consisting of irones. The review comprehensively and critically presents the techniques for the optimized production of irones from orris rhizomes and their formation from their triterpene p...

Tea infusions are the most consumed beverages in the world after water; their pleasant yet peculiar flavor profile drives consumer choice and acceptance and becomes a fundamental benchmark for the industry. Any qualification method capable of objectifying the product’s sensory features effectively supports industrial quality control laboratories in...

Tea infusions are the most consumed beverages in the world after water, their pleasant yet peculiar flavor profile drives consumer choice and acceptance and becomes a fundamental benchmark for industry. Any qualification method capable of objectifying the product's sensory features effectively supports industrial quality control laboratories guaran...

Tyrosinase is a target enzyme to be inhibited in order to reduce excessive melanin production and prevent typical age-related skin disorders. Essential oils are complex mixtures of volatile compounds, belonging mainly to monoterpenoids and sesquiterpenoids, which have been relatively little studied as tyrosinase inhibitors. Among the monoterpenoids...

Microbial co-cultivation has emerged as a promising approach to unravel interspecies communication at the molecular scale. Nonetheless, a significant hurdle in this research domain is highlighting the microbial origin of metabolites present in co-culture systems. Metabolites observed in co-cultures can be absent in their respective single cultures,...

Elettaria cardamomum (L.) Maton (Zingiberaceae family) is a plant traditionally used in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine. In this work, the essential oil of E. cardamomum was found to inhibit the enzymes AChE (62.6% of inhibition, IC50 24.9 μg/mL) and BChE (55.8% of inhibition, IC50 25.9 μg/mL) by performing an in vitro colorimetric assay using the E...

Enantioselective gas chromatography is used in fragrance quality control laboratories to authenticate the origin of raw materials and detect possible frauds or adulterations of perfumes. These laboratories must contend with increasing attention to environmental sustainability, quality standards that require accurate and reliable measurements, and p...

In this study, HS-SPME-GC-MS was applied in combination with machine learning tools to the identitation of a set of cocoa samples of different origins. Untargeted fingerprinting and profiling approaches were tested for their informative, discriminative and classification ability provided by the volatilome of the raw beans and liquors inbound at the...

Computer Vision is an approach of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that conceptually enables "computers and systems to derive useful information from digital images" giving access to higher-level information and "take actions or make recommendations based on that information". Comprehensive two-dimensional chromatography gives access to highly detailed...

Effective investigation of food volatilome by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography with parallel detection by mass spectrometry and flame ionization detector (GC×GC-MS/FID) gives access to valuable information related to industrial quality. However, without accurate quantitative data, results transferability over time and across laborat...

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC-TOFMS) is one the most powerful analytical platforms for chemical investigations of complex biological samples. It produces large datasets that are rich in information, but highly complex, and its consistency may be affected by random systemic fluctuatio...

This study examines the volatilome of good and oxidised coffee samples from two commercial coffee species (i.e., Coffea arabica (arabica) and Coffea canephora (robusta)) in different packagings (i.e., standard with aluminium barrier and Eco-caps) to define a fingerprint potentially describing their oxidised note, independently of origin and packagi...

Edible nuts and dried fruits, usually traded together in the global market, are one of the cornerstones of the Mediterranean diet representing a source of essential nutrients and bioactives. The food industry has an interest in the selection of high-quality materials for new product development while also matching consumers’ expectations in terms o...

Vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectra and the corresponding IR spectra of the chiral isomers of methyloxirane and of methylthiirane have been reinvestigated, both experimentally and theoretically, with particular attention to accounting for anharmonic corrections, as calculated by the GVPT2 approach. De novo recorded VCD spectra in the near...

Brazil is the second-largest importer, after the United States, of extra-virgin olive oils with an internal production that just reaches 0.25% of the volume imported and consumed. Information about diagnostic chemical signatures characterizing Brazilian oils is lacking, especially as related to geographical markers and key-aroma compounds distribut...

European hazelnuts (Corylus avellana L.) are a key ingredient for the confectionery industry with a distinctive flavor profile and high nutritional quality. However, the high-fat content makes raw kernels prone to autoxidation that takes place during storage. Fatty acids hydroperoxides (i.e., primary products of oxidation) readily decompose by form...

Acrylamide (AA) is a product of food heating process that is widely present in cooked foods and known to be toxic to humans. Exposure data has revealed coffee to be one of the sources of this toxicant in adult diets. A great deal of effort has been invested into finding ways of reducing AA formation during coffee processing. However, despite the ac...

The volatile fraction of plant-based foods provides useful functional information concerning sample-related variables such as plant genotype and phenotype expression, pedoclimatic and harvest conditions, transformation/processing technologies, and can be informative about the sensory quality. In this respect, the enantiomeric recognition of the chi...

The volatilome of hazelnuts (Corylus avellana L.) encrypts information about phenotype expression as a function of cultivar/origin, post-harvest practices, and their impact on primary metabolome, storage conditions and shelf-life, spoilage, and quality deterioration. Moreover, within the bulk of detectable volatiles, just a few of them play a key r...

Phosphonium-based ionic liquids (ILs) have proven to be successful stationary phases (SPs) for gas chromatography (GC) in several fields of application because of their unique selectivity and good chromatographic properties. This study focuses on the use of two ILs as GC SPs that are based on the phosphonium derivatives trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphon...

The contribution provides proof-of-evidence on how effective are chromatographic fingerprinting methodologies based on comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatographic data to explore the complex volatilome of food. In particular, hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) volatilome is here taken as a test bench to demonstrate how the different kinds of feat...

This review is an overview of the recent advances of gas chromatography in essential oil analysis; in particular, it focuses on both the new stationary phases and the advanced analytical methods and instrumentations. A paragraph is dedicated to ionic liquids as GC stationary phases, showing that, thanks to their peculiar selectivity, they can offer...

The quality control of essential oils (EO) principally aims at revealing the presence of adulterations and at quantifying compounds that are limited by law by evaluating EO chemical compositions, usually in terms of the normalised relative abundance of selected markers, for comparison to reference values reported in pharmacopoeias and/or internatio...

The challenging process of high-quality food authentication takes advantage of highly informative chromatographic fingerprinting and its identitation potential. In this study, the unique chemical traits of the complex volatile fraction of extra-virgin olive oils from Italian production are captured by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatograph...

Excessive melanin production causes serious dermatological conditions as well as minor aesthetic problems (i.e., freckles and solar lentigo). The downregulation of tyrosinase is a widespread approach for the treatment of such disorders, and plant extracts have often proven to be valuable sources of tyrosinase inhibitors. Citral (a mixture of neral...

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography with parallel mass spectrometry and flame ionization detection (GC × GC-MS/FID) enables effective chromatographic fingerprinting of complex samples by comprehensively mapping untargeted and targeted components. Moreover, the complementary characteristics of MS and FID open the possibility of performi...

Coffee cupping includes both aroma and taste, and its evaluation considers several different attributes simultaneously to define flavor quality and therefore requires complementary data from aroma and taste. This study investigates the potential and limits of a data-driven approach to describe the sensory quality of coffee using complementary analy...

Hazelnuts are characterized by a relatively high abundance of oleic acid and poly-unsaturated fatty acids, which give this fruit a high nutritional value. As a counterbalance, such a lipid profile is more susceptible to autoxidation and/or degradation reactions under enzymatic catalysis. Lipid oxidation occurs on fatty acids (FAs), both esterified...

The volatile fraction of hazelnuts encrypts information about: cultivar/geographical origin, post-harvest treatments, oxidative stability and sensory quality. However, sensory features could be buried under other dominant chemical signatures posing challenges to an effective classification based on pleasant/unpleasant notes. Here a novel workflow t...

Accurate, reliable, and informative mapping of untargeted and targeted components across many samples is here performed by combining off-line GC-Olfactometry (GC-O) and comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry with variable ionization energy (TOF MS featuring Tandem Ionization™). In partic...

This review focuses on the role that GC × GC can play within the investigation workflows of food‐omics and related disciplines and sub‐disciplines, including food metabolomics, nutrimetabolomics, sensomics, and food safety. After a short introductory survey, discussing the intriguing context of system biology and integrationist approaches of invest...

This study focuses on the detectable metabolome of high-quality raw hazelnuts (Corylus avellana L.) and on its changes after dry-roasting. Informative fingerprinting was obtained by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography with fast-scanning quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC×GC-qMS) combined with dedicated data processing. In particular, com...

This contribution reviews state-of-the approaches for chromatographic fingerprinting of 2D peak patterns. Concepts of sample's fingerprint and profile, as established in metabolomics, are conceptually translated to comprehensive two-dimensional chromatography (C2DC) separations embracing the principles of biometric fingerprinting. Approaches founde...

This chapter reports on the status of chiral recognition with gas chromatography (enantioselective-GC, Es-GC). The chapter consists of two main parts. The first one illustrates properties and performance of chiral selectors nowadays available for everyday enantiomer separation (α-amino acid derivatives, chelate chiral selectors, and derivatized cyc...

A novel chemical profile essential oil, distilled from the aerial parts of Clinopodium taxifolium (Kunth) Govaerts (Lamiaceae), was analysed by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS, qualitative analysis) and Gas Chromatography with Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID, quantitative analysis), with both polar and non-polar stationary phase colum...

The contribution focuses on untargeted data processing/analysis approaches that are currently adopted to explore the 4D-data matrices produced by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC×GC-MS) in food-omics. Strategies for untargeted explorations are rationalized through the type of features adopted (i.e., visual, dat...

Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) are metabolites emitted by living plants that have a fundamental ecological role since they influence atmospheric chemistry, plant communication and pollinator/herbivore behaviour, and human activities. Over the years, several strategies have been developed to isolate and identify them, and to take advant...

This study examines the information potential of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography combined with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOF MS) and variable ionization energy (i.e., Tandem Ionization™) to study changes in saliva metabolic signatures from a small group of obese individuals. The study presents a proof of concept for a...

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a metabolic disorder characterized by unpaired blood glycaemia maintenance. T2DM can be treated by inhibiting carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzymes (α-amylases and α-glucosidases) to decrease postprandial hyperglycemia. Acarbose and voglibose are inhibitors used in clinical practice. However, these drugs are associated...

Background Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography combined with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOF MS) is the most informative analytical approach for chemical characterization of the complex food volatilome. Key analytical features include: separation power and resolution enhancement; improved sensitivity; and structured separat...

Cocoa smoky off-flavour is generated from an inappropriate artificial drying applied on beans to speeding up the post-harvest process and it can affect the quality of the chocolate. The sensory tests are time-consuming, and at present, a fast analytical method to detect this defect in raw materials is not yet available. This study applies a HS-SPME...

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) based on flow-modulation (FM) is gaining increasing attention as an alternative to thermal modulation (TM), the recognized GC×GC benchmark, thanks to its lower operational cost and rugged performance. An accessible, rational procedure to perform method translation between the two platforms wo...

This study applied an untargeted–targeted (UT) fingerprinting approach, based on comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOF MS), to assess the effects of rainfall and temperature (both seasonal and elevational) on the tea metabolome. By this strategy, the same compound found in multiple samples need...

Melaleuca alternifolia essential oil (tea tree oil) is widely used as an ingredient in skin care products because of its recognized biological activities. The European Scientific Committee on Consumer Products constantly promotes research and collection of data on both skin distribution and systemic exposure to tea tree oil components after the app...

The frankincense resins, secreted from Boswellia species, are an uncommon example of a natural raw material where every class of terpenoids is present in similar proportions. Diterpenoids (serratol, incensole, incensole acetate) are used to discriminate samples from different species and origins. Headspace solid‐phase microextraction has been used...

Room temperature ionic liquids (ILs) are well established stationary phases (SPs) for gas chromatography (GC) in several fields of applications because of their unique and tunable selectivity, low vapor pressure and volatility, high thermal stability (over 300 °C), and good chromatographic properties. This study is focused on an IL based on a phosp...

Green pruning residues (GPRs) and leaves from 16 red and white Vitis vinifera L. cultivars from Piedmont (Italy) were studied. The investigated samples were extracted by ultrasound-assisted extraction optimized by an experimental design, and quali- and quantitatively analyzed by HPLC-PDA-MS/MS. GPRs and leaves show a similar polyphenolic pattern, w...

This chapter provides a survey about state of the art, technology, and instrumental solutions for gas chromatography applied to food chemical characterization; cutting-edge applications; future trends are also presented. The aim is to deal with some of the most recent innovations on: (1) column technology as new generations of stationary phases and...

The volatile fraction of natural products often consists of complex mixtures of isomeric and/or homologous components with similar structural and physical characteristics (e.g. mono- and sesquiterpenoids) that are not easy to separate simultaneously with conventional GC stationary phases, even when used with multidimensional systems. The introducti...

The quality assessment of the green coffee that you will go to buy cannot be disregarded from a sensory evaluation, although this practice is time consuming and requires a trained professional panel. This study aims to investigate both the potential and the limits of the direct headspace solid phase microextraction, mass spectrometry electronic nos...

The essential oils of Myrcianthes myrsinoides and Myrcia mollis, belonging to the Myrtaceae family, were obtained by steam distillation. They were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID), enantioselective gas chromatography, and gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O). A total o...

In this study, a multidisciplinary approach investigated the enzymatic degradation of micropollutants in real, not modified, municipal wastewaters of a plant located in Italy. Stir Bar Sorptive Extraction combined to Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometric detection (SBSE-GC-MS) was applied to profile targeted pollutants in wastewaters collected afte...

The information potential of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography combined with time of flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC-TOFMS) featuring tandem hard (70 eV) and soft (12 eV) electron ionization is here applied to accurately delineate high-quality hazelnuts (Corylus avellana L.) primary metabolome fingerprints. The information provided...

The fresh leaves of Coreopsis triloba S.F. Blake, collected at Cerro Villonaco in Loja, Ecuador, were investigated with respect to their essential oil (EO). The chemical composition was determined qualitatively through gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and quantitatively by gas chromatography coupled with flame ionization (G...

Identifying all analytes in a natural product is a daunting challenge, even if fractionated by volatility. In this study, comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC×GC-MS) was used to investigate relative distribution of volatiles in green, pu-erh tea from leaves collected at two different elevations (1162 m and 1651 m)....

Gas chromatography is widely used in applications involving food analysis. Typical applications pertain to the quantitative and/or qualitative analysis of food composition, natural products, food additives, and flavour and aroma components. Providing an up-to-date look at the significant advances in the technology, this book includes details on nov...

Gas chromatography is widely used in applications involving food analysis. Typical applications pertain to the quantitative and/or qualitative analysis of food composition, natural products, food additives, and flavour and aroma components. Providing an up-to-date look at the significant advances in the technology, this book includes details on nov...

Qualitative and quantitative determination of volatile markers in aqueous based fragrances assumes ever-increasing importance, because of both the need for quality control and the safety-regulatory limitations introduced for several compounds. This study reports and critically discusses the results of applying new water-compatible ionic-liquid (IL)...

The use of a thick sorbent coating in headspace sorptive extraction (HSSE) increases the amount of analytes extracted at equilibrium as well as the time needed to reach it. In this work we propose HSSE sampling under vacuum conditions to reduce equilibration times. A theoretical model is presented that describes the pressure dependence of the so-ca...

Cocoa smoky off-flavor is due to inappropriate post-harvest processing and cannot be removed in the subsequent chocolate-manufacturing steps. To date, no reliable analytical method to detect key-analytes responsible for smoky off-flavor in incoming raw material is available. This study aims to develop an analytical method, suitable for quality cont...

This study reports a follow-up investigation on the capture of specific DNA sequences using ion-tagged oligonucleotides (ITOs) and magnetic ionic liquids (MIL). Five allylimidazolium salts bearing octyl substituents ([AOIM+]-ITOs) were used for the selective extraction of the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) from Arabidopsis thaliana. In th...

This case study describes data analysis of a chromatogram distributed for the 2019 GC×GC Data Challenge for the Tenth Multidimensional Chromatography Workshop (Liege, Belgium). The chromatogram resulted from chemical analysis of a terpene-standards sample by comprehensive two-dimensional chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC×GC-MS). First, seve...

Baccharis trimera (Less.) DC. (Asteraceae) is a medicinal and aromatic herb from South America, known as “carqueja”, being included in the Brazilian Pharmacopeia (1). Besides its medicinal properties (digestive, analgesic and diuretic; among others), the essential oil of this species is employed by the fragrance industry for it reminiscence to rose...