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The preliminary studies on thermal behavior of differently aged natural resins from Russia (Khatanga), Dominican Republic (El Valle), Colombia and Poland (Jantar) were performed. Thermal stability and behavior under elevated temperature were investigated by thermogravimetry (TG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), while the differences in the structure and composition by FT-IR spectroscopy. Analyzed resins show different thermal effects during heating suggesting that possible post-reactions and structural changes occurred. TG results indicated that Dominican, Russian and Colombian resins present relatively high thermal stability under air conditions in the range of 228–300 °C, whereas the mass loss of 5mass% at about 217 °C was observed for Baltic amber. During DSC experiments, the analyzed resins expose thermal events which make impossible determination of glass transition temperature in a raw sample. The results indicate that both TG and DSC cannot be considered as methods for age dating of natural resins and more advanced techniques should be applied. Careful analysis of FT-IR data in the carbonyl region may provide additional information about the composition and history of the natural resin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents results of the analysis of organic coffee beans cultivated in Departamento del Cauca - Colombia. Beans studied are of the Coffea Arabica species cultivated in mountain soils of altitude close to 1500 m. Samples from green and roasted beans were characterized using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). We intend to relate the features of the heating spectra with the transformation experimented by the coffee. Glass transition and phase transitions were examined. DSC and TGA spectra show that the green coffee experiments a high and fast decomposition after 200 °C until 289 °C with a remarkable transformation in a close range around 210 °C. XRD shows significant changes for green and roasted beans associated to the amount of caffeine hydrates and caffeine anhydrous. Fit of XRD curves by Lorentzian shows a considerable increase of the active crystalline phase at 2θ equal to 20.40 for the roasted coffee. The results obtained from this study contribute to the insight associated with the final quality of coffee dependent on roasting methods. Better quality of coffee requires a refined and very controlled roasting process around of 218 °C with a slow thermal treatment since the room temperature until the 200 °C. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]