The incorporation of Cerrado fruits in food products such as ice cream has many advantages because it represents a source of nutrients and bioactive compounds. Given the demand for less laborious methods to analyze food, the paper spray ionization mass spectrometry technique was applied for the first time for a rapid characterization of the chemical components found cagaita ice cream. PS-MS in positive and negative ionization modes were used. The profile of volatile compounds was determined by headspace solid-phase microextraction combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Fingerprints obtained through PS-MS identified various classes of compounds, such as flavones, anthocyanins, sugars, organic acids, hydroxybenzoic acids, fatty acids, hydroxycinnamic acids, lignin, and phenylpropanoid. The use of both fibers enabled the extraction and identification of 18 volatile compounds in cagaita, and 16 of them were also identified in cagaita ice cream. The most common volatile compound found in both cagaita and ice cream was 3-carene monoterpene. Considering the effect of processing on cagaita constituents, 89% of the volatile compounds remained in the ice cream. Also, 78% of the fruit chemical compounds analyzed by PS-MS were found in the product. Thus, the results indicate that most of the fruit compounds remained in the ice cream after processing.

Cagaita is a fruit from Brazilian cerrado, belongs to Myrtaceae family, and has important economic value. This work aimed to determine the total antioxidant capacity (extractable and non-extractable fractions) by different methods and to evaluate the use of paper spray mass spectrometry to obtain fingerprints of cagaita from different regions with the aid of principal components analysis. Cagaitas had higher antioxidant activity than those found in other fruits mentioned in literature, and the non-extractable fraction was 18.90 to 21.05% of the antioxidant capacity. The analysis of paper spray mass spectrometry in positive and negative ionization modes identified several substances, including organic acids, sugars, amino acids and several other classes of phenolic compounds. Analysis of the main components of cagaita samples permitted discrimination of the major constituents such as sugars and different kinds of phenolic compounds. Thus, this study demonstrated that paper spray mass spectrometry is a simple and ultrafast method with minimum sample preparation that allows the analysis of the chemical profile of cagaita.