A purge and trap concentrator coupled to gas chromatography was used to quantify dimethylsulphide in distilled beverages. A very good performance was obtained using a HP-FFAP column and a mass selective detector operating in SIM mode (m/z 62): detection limit 8 x 10-9 mol L-1; good repeatability and total time of analysis 25 minutes. The method has been applied for sixty samples of alcoholic beverages (cachaças, tiquiras, grappas, whiskies, brandies, vodkas, rum and a tequila). The cachaças exhibit the highest content of dimethylsulphide (median 3.16 x 10-4 mol L-1), followed by grappa (median 1.45 x 10-4 mol L-1). The presence of dimethylsulphide was not observed in the samples of rum.
cachaça; chromatography; purge and trap; dimethylsulphide; GC-MS
