Iranian Food Science and Technology Research Journal
with the collaboration of Iranian Food Science and Technology Association (IFSTA)

Detection of adulterants and contaminants in black pepper, cumin, fennel, coriander and turmeric using GC-MS technique for forensic investigation

Document Type : Research Article-en

Authors

Pallavi Choudhary 1
Arpita Seth 2
Kanak Lata Verma 1

1 Regional Forensic Science Laboratory, Government of NCT of Delhi, Home Department, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, 110021, India.

2 Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi, Delhi, 110007, India

https://doi.org/10.22067/ifstrj.2022.75621.1155
Abstract
Forensic investigation is very crucial for identifying quality and safety issues related to food and its product. GC- MS has been used extensively in food analysis, and in the present study, it was used to identify the active constituents of some household spices as well as to detect the adulterants and contaminants which might be present in the samples. Spices used in the present study are black pepper, cumin, fennel, coriander and turmeric. The spice extracts were found to be useful in authenticating the spices by identifying various active constituents of the spices, like piperine, caryophyllene and 3- carene in black pepper; cuminaldehyde and 1, 3- methadien- 7- al in cumin; anethole and fenchone in fennel; linalool, and geranyl vinyl ether in coriander and turmerone and zingiberene in turmeric. The adulterants detected qualitatively were plant- based adulterants. GC- MS is proved to be an effective tool in detecting plant- based adulterants, microbial contaminants, and agro chemical residues as well as industrial and manufacturing waste.

Keywords

GC-MS
Spice adulteration
Spice authentication
Spice contaminants
Qualitative
Subjects
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Iranian Food Science and Technology Research Journal
Volume 18, Issue 3 - Serial Number 75
July and August 2022
Pages 31-51

  • Receive Date 03 March 2022
  • Revise Date 04 April 2022
  • Accept Date 18 April 2022
  • First Publish Date 15 May 2022

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PDF Download 2,504

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