Study of the Physicochemical Properties/Gas Chromatography Profile of Adulterated Pomegranate Juice by Nano-Composite-Fiber

In this work, pomegranate juice was adulterated manually by adding sour cherry and red grape juices. Physicochemical properties (brix, acidity, formalin index, reducing sugar, and total sugar) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) gas chromatography profile (extracted by PPy-Ag nano-fiber) of pure pomegranate juice and adulterated pomegranate juice were evaluated and used to find adulteration. PPy-Ag nano-fiber as a Head-Space Solid Phase Micro Extraction-Gas Chromatography (HS-SPME-GC) method was used to extract and detect the VOCs profile (total peak area and total peak height) of different juices. The Box-Behnken Design (BBD) was used to study the effects of Pomegranate Juice (PJ), Sour Cherry Juice (SCJ) and Grape Juice (GJ) percent (V/V%) in the adulterated mix juice physicochemical properties and GC-profile. Results showed that the percent of pomegranate juice, sour cherry juice, and grape juice affect the juice physicochemical property, and there are relations between the physicochemical property of the juice and VOCs gas chromatography profile (total peak area and total peak height) that can help to find adulteration. The presented research makes it possible to detect adulteration of sour cherry and grape juice and their percent in the adulterated mix by analyzing the juice physicochemical properties and GC-profile.