The Effect of Irradiation on the Natural Volatile Compounds of Dried Mint and the Migration of Chemicals from the Packaging Materials

Subject Areas : Microbiology

F. Vedaei ¹ , M. Mizani ² , M. Mashhadi Boujar ³ , A. Gerami ⁴

1 -               کارشناس ارشد گروه علوم و صنایع غذایی، واحد علوم و تحقیقات تهران، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، تهران، ایران
2 - دانشیار گروه علوم و صنایع غذایی، واحد علوم و تحقیقات تهران، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، تهران، ایران
3 - دانشیار دانشکده علوم، دانشگاه خوارزمی، تهران، ایران
4 - دانشیار گروه آمار و ریاضی، دانشگاه تهران، تهران، ایران

Received: 2016-02-21 Accepted : 2016-02-21 Published : 2016-03-20

Keywords: Gas Chromatography, Irradiation, migration, Prepackaged Dried Mint,

Abstract :

Introduction: Dried vegetables such as mint are usually prepackaged irradiated to preventthe post contamination and reduce the microbial population. This process might affect thetype and the amount of natural volatile essential oils of the product and also some ions,freeradicals and low molecular weight volatile compounds might be released from the packagingmaterials due to radiolysis reactions migrated into the package and might be adsorbed ontoproduct.Materials and Methods: Dried mints, the mixtures of two species (spearmint, peppermint)were packaged in pouch of three layers of polypropylene film and were irradiated at 8, 10 and15 KGy. The changes in the natural volatile compounds of the product and those that werereleased from packaging and were isolated by distillation-extraction technique were analyzedusing gas chromatography equipped with flame ionization detector.Results: 59 different compounds were identified which might be classified into the followinggroups: a) the essential oils which were completely destroyed at three different doses(Sabinene, 7-myrcene). b) The essential oils which their concentration were increased byincreasing the irradiation dose (Trans sabinene hydrate, cis-jasmone). c) The essential oilswhich were safe in the lower doses but partially lost at 15KGy. d) Chemical volatilecompounds from polymeric packaging material which migrated into the package (tert-butylbenzene).Conclusion: The results indicated that essential oils from spearmint were more sensitive toirradiation than peppermint. To save the functional quality and also safety of prepackagedirradiateddried mint, processing dose may not exceed from 8KGy and more resistant mintspecies such as peppermint should be packaged in polymeric materials with lower sensibilityto irradiation, i.e. polyethylene terephthalate.