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Characterization of the key active aroma compounds in Pu-erh tea using gas chromatography–time of flight/mass spectrometry–olfactometry combined with five different evaluation methods

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Abstract

The aroma characteristics of Pu-erh tea were studied in this work. A total of 117 volatile compounds were identified by HS-SPME combined with GC–TOF/MS, of which 29 active aroma compounds were identified by olfactometry. The active aroma compounds of Pu-erh tea were analyzed by intensity aroma (IA), aroma extraction dilution (AEDA), sensory quantification value (MF), detection frequency (DFA) and odor activity value (OAV). 24, 21 and 23 active aroma components were identified by DFA, AEDA and OAV, while 20 by IA and MF. Recombination of the obtained active aroma components indicated that OAV method was best for determining the active aroma compounds as the aroma profile of OAV recombination model was the most similar to that of Pu-erh tea sample. Omission test of the OAV recombination model furtherly identified 19 characteristic active aroma compounds of Pu-erh tea, and linalool, 1,2,3-trimenthoxybenzebe, 1,2,4-trimethoxybenzene and ɑ-ionone were the key characteristic active aromatic compounds.

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Abbreviations

GC–TOF/MS–O:

Gas chromatography–time of flight/mass spectrometry–olfactometry

HS-SPME:

Headspace solid phase microextraction

GC–TOF/MS:

Gas chromatography–flight mass spectrometry

IA:

Intensity aroma

AEDA:

Aroma extraction dilution

MF:

Sensory quantification value

DFA:

Detection frequency

OAV:

Odor activity value

GC–MS–O:

Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry–olfactometry

RI:

Retention time

FD:

Flavor dilution

MF:

Modified frequency

I :

Intensity

F :

Frequency

DF:

Detection frequency

BET:

Best Estimate Threshold

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Acknowledgements

This work was accomplished under the auspices of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 31671847), the Open Project Program of State Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety (no. SKLFENS-KF-201915), the Project Program of Key Laboratory of Industrial Fermentation Microbiology, Ministry of Education, China (no. 2018KF006) and the Zhongyuan Scholars in Henan Province (no. 192101510004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Industrial Fermentation Microbiology Ministry of Education, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Industrial Microbiology, State Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin, 300457, People’s Republic of China

    Lijuan Ma, Manman Gao, Jiangnan Hu, Wenzhe Tong, Liping Du & Aiqun Yu

  2. College of Biological Engineering, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, 450001, People’s Republic of China

    Jihong Huang

  3. Agricultural Processing Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Jianxun Li

  4. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Industrial Biology Systems and Processing Engineering, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, 300308, People’s Republic of China

    Ronglin He

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  1. Lijuan Ma
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Contributions

We declare that the manuscript entitled “Characterization of the key active aroma compounds in Pu-erh tea using gas chromatography-time of flight/mass spectrometry-olfactometry combined with five different evaluation methods” is our collaborated work. LM, LD and AY conceived and designed the experiments; MG and WT performed the experiments and analyzed the data, LM, MG and JH prepared manuscript. LD, AY, JL, RH, JH reviewed the paper.

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Correspondence to Liping Du.

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Ma, L., Gao, M., Hu, J. et al. Characterization of the key active aroma compounds in Pu-erh tea using gas chromatography–time of flight/mass spectrometry–olfactometry combined with five different evaluation methods. Eur Food Res Technol 248, 45–56 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00217-021-03847-2

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