Abstract:
Coffee is a worldwide beverage of increasing consumption, owing to its unique flavor
and several health benefits. Metabolites of coffee are numerous and could be classified on various
bases, of which some are endogenous to coffee seeds, i.e., alkaloids, diterpenes, sugars, and amino
acids, while others are generated during coffee processing, for example during roasting and brewing,
such as furans, pyrazines, and melanoidins. As a beverage, it provides various distinct flavors,
i.e., sourness, bitterness, and an astringent taste attributed to the presence of carboxylic acids,
alkaloids, and chlorogenic acids. To resolve such a complex chemical makeup and to relate chemical
composition to coffee effects, large-scale metabolomics technologies are being increasingly reported
in the literature for proof of coffee quality and efficacy. This review summarizes the applications
of various mass spectrometry (MS)- and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabolomics
technologies in determining the impact of coffee breeding, origin, roasting, and brewing on coffee
chemical composition, and considers this in relation to quality control (QC) determination, for
example, by classifying defected and non-defected seeds or detecting the adulteration of raw materials.
Resolving the coffee metabolome can aid future attempts to yield coffee seeds of desirable traits and
best flavor types.
