Mass Spectrometry Based Method Development for Monitoring Degradation of Coffee Beans and Mechanistic Exploration into Methylation Enhancement of Phospholipids Using Diazomethane

Mass spectrometry is a powerful analytical tool with endless potential for developing new scientific methods and making new discoveries in science. In part I of this work, headspace GCMS was used to monitor and identify volatile chemicals, attributing to the unique flavours in roasted coffee, which diminished as the coffee beans aged. These flavour components were shown to vary in relative abundance randomly over time and the extent to which they varied was seemingly random as well. Though strong conclusions could not be made, comparing the change in peak area over a period of months appears to be an optimistic method to use in order to evaluate the coffee's quality with measurable accuracy. In part II of this work, nanoESI mass spectrometry was used to show mechanistically how diazomethane methylates phospholipids. The methylation of sphingomyelin and phosphatidylethanolamine were shown to undergo complete conversion in different solvent mixtures.