Influence of Harvest Season and Maturation of Different Sugarcane (Saccharum Spp.) Cultivars on the Chemical Composition of Alembic Brazilian Sugarcane Spirit
Contrary to the ethanol industrial production, the
quality and composition of sugar cane as raw material for the production of
alembic cachaca have until now not been
completely addressed. This work evaluated the influence of five different
sugarcane cultivars and degree of maturation over the physicochemical
composition of cachaca produced under strict controlled conditions. Three harvest
seasons were used in order to obtain different stages of maturation. The
sugarcane quality was assessed by the juice brix, sugarcane POL, reducing sugars,
and purity. The cultivars quality did not differ within each harvest stage. However,
significant quality differences were observed among sugarcane harvested in June
and the other harvest months, particularly on reducing sugar content. This
indicates different stages of sugarcane maturation. The 45 samples of cachaca
produced from those sugarcanes were submitted to physicochemical and gas
chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) qualitative analysis. The GC/MS
composition pattern showed that the type of cultivar did not alter the
composition of the cachaca at the same harvest stage. Otherwise, the production
of acetic acid, ethyl lactate and n- butyl alcohol was higher in the first harvest (June) when compared to the others. The results from sugar
cane quality and GC/MS when submitted to principal component analysis (PCA)
showed consistently the separation between the groups of cachaca produced in
the three seasons, indicating the influence of sugarcane ripening over the
cachaca composition.
Cite this paper
Fernandes, O. W. B. , Silva, D. F. , Sanson, A. L. , Coutrim, M. X. , Afonso, R. J. D. C. F. , Eichler, P. and Santos, F. (2017). Influence of Harvest Season and Maturation of Different Sugarcane (Saccharum Spp.) Cultivars on the Chemical Composition of Alembic Brazilian Sugarcane Spirit. Open Access Library Journal, 4, e3266. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1103266.
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