Identification of Volatiles from Kumquats and Their Biological Activities

摘要

Citrus fruits have unique volatile compounds including complex flavoring components. The genus Fortunella is taxonomically close to the genus Citrus. Kumquats are a group of small fruit-bearing trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae either forming the genus Fortunella. Generally, these fruits have been used in traditional herbal medicine especially for colds and coughs. Citrus volatiles including kumquats are important targets for studies in chemotaxonomy, biochemical ecology antimicrobial and anticancer activities. The complexity of volatiles often limits to conduct research with target compounds. The advent of gas chromatography in the 1950s allowed researchers to separate volatiles and tentatively identify the major compounds. Later, mass spectral and retention index (RI) of each volatile compounds gives more authenticity for identification using gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (GC-MS). More than 250 volatiles from kumquats and citrus were tabulated along with their Kovats indices using different polarity columns. The formation of volatiles, analytical, separation methods, antioxidant properties and antimicrobial activities of volatile components were also discussed in this chapter.