Abstract: | The trapping technique of Singleton and Pattee, in which the volatiles are swept to a Porapak Q trap by suction rather than by a sweeping gas, was modified and used to isolate soursop juice volatiles. Using fixed, low vacuum and operating conditions determined specifically for soursop volatiles, very high reproducibility was obtained. The majority of the peaks had a coefficient of variation less than 0.10. The relative amounts of the volatile components obtained by direct headspace sampling was fairly well maintained in the Porapak Q concentrate. The chromatograms showed distinct differences between two commercial brands or between lots of the same brand of soursop juice. The trapping technique appear to have wide applicability provided that the operating conditions are adapted to each product studied. |