Ricerc@Sapienza

Almonds are the tasty seeds of Prunus dulcis plants globally
appreciated for the pleasant palatability and remarkable nutritional
value, therefore it is very spread as snack and as basic
ingredient of the confectionery products. The HR-MAS-NMR is a
simple spectroscopy able to directly and quickly explore the
chemical composition of powdered seed samples dispersed in
D2O. 1H spectra witness the remarkable presence of triglyceride
fatty esters together with sucrose; other minor water soluble
metabolites are also detectable. This very rough approach is
effectively providing chemical profiles featuring almond samples.
In this analysis we were able to statistically distinguish the
“Avola” almonds from other marketed products submitted to the
same analysis. This is just a first investigation based on the main
compounds but it might pave the way toward the quantitative
evaluation of many other compounds in the almond therefore
implementing the HR-MAS-NMR knowledge of these precious
seeds.