Comprehensive analysis of quality characteristics in main commercial coffee varieties and wild Arabica in Kenya

Collins Ogutu; Sylvia Cherono; Charmaine Ntini; Lu Wang; Yuepeng Han

doi:10.1016/j.fochx.2022.100294

Comprehensive analysis of quality characteristics in main commercial coffee varieties and wild Arabica in Kenya

Food Chem X. 2022 Mar 25:14:100294. doi: 10.1016/j.fochx.2022.100294. eCollection 2022 Jun 30.

Authors

Collins Ogutu^{1

2}, Sylvia Cherono^{1

3}, Charmaine Ntini^{1

3}, Lu Wang^{1

4}, Yuepeng Han^{1

4

2}

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Plant Germplasm Enhancement and Specialty Agriculture, Wuhan Botanical Garden, The Innovative Academy of Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074 China.
² Sino-African Joint Research Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074 China.
³ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19A Yuquanlu, Beijing 100049, China.
⁴ Center of Economic Botany, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, China.

Abstract

Coffee flavor is a complex commercial trait and its generation mechanisms remain largely unclear. Here, we investigated non-volatile and volatile compounds in the AA grade coffee beans of cultivated and wild Coffea arabica accessions in Kenya. An increased accumulation of trigonelline and sucrose along with a decreased accumulation of caffeine and 5-caffeoylquinic acid or chlorogenic acid (CGA) relative to wild Arabica contribute to the improved flavor of commercial varieties. Trigonelline was strongly associated with attributes of coffee brews such as pH, aroma intensity and antioxidant activity, suggesting that it is one of the main flavor precursors. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) identified 18 volatiles that could potentially define flavor quality of coffee brews, with pyrazines and thiols as the major coffee flavor determinants.

Keywords: Arabica; Aroma; Caffeine; Chlorogenic acid; Flavor; Sucrose; Trigonelline.