Contribution of aroma-active compounds to the aroma of Lu'an Guapian tea

Abstract

In China, Lu'an Guapian (LAGP) tea consists of tea leaves without tea buds or stems. In this study, we evaluated the aromatic characteristics of LAGP by sensory analysis, aroma extract dilution analysis (AEDA), and odor activity values. The sensory analysis revealed that LAGP had cooked soybean-like, cooked chestnut-like, roasted, cooked corn-like, fishy, fruity, floral, and grass aromas. Aroma-active compounds from LAGP were identified by solvent extraction-solid phase extraction (SE-SPE) and headspace-solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME), and subjected to AEDA. A total of 91 aroma-active compounds were identified by SE-SPE-AEDA with flavor dilution (FD) factors ranging from 1 to 4096. A total of 66 aroma-active compounds were identified by HS-SPME-AEDA with FD of 1 to 128. Nine compounds with FD ≥64 and OAVs ≥1 were major aroma-active compounds to the aroma of LAGP tea: raspberry ketone (raspberry), (E)-β-ionone (floral, raspberry), dimethyl sulfide (cooked corn-like), indole (animal), phenylacetaldehyde (floral, honey-like), 2-ethyl-3,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted), (Z)-4-heptenal (cooked soybean-like, fishy), (Z)-jasmone (jasmine), and geraniol (rose).