Enhanced detection of aldehydes in Extra-Virgin Olive Oil by means of band selective NMR spectroscopy

High resolution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a very powerful tool for comprehensive food analyses and especially for Extra- Virgin Olive Oils (EVOOs). We use the NMR technique to study the spectral region of aldehydes (8-10 ppm) for EVOOs coming from the south part of Italy. We perform novel experiments by using mono and bidimensional band selective spin-echo pulse sequences and identify four structural classes of aldehydes in EVOOs. For the first time such species are identified in EVOOs without any chemical treatment apart than the dissolution in CDCl3. This would allow the discrimination of different EVOOs for the aldehydes content increasing the potentiality of the NMR technique in the screening of metabolites for geographical characterization of EVOOs.