Characterization of Volatile Components of Eight FengHuang Dancong Manufactured Teas and Fresh Leaves by HS-SPME Coupled with GC-MS

FengHuang Dancong tea is famous for its excellent aroma quality. In order to characterize the volatile components in different aroma types of FengHuang Dancong tea, both fresh leaves and manufactured teas of seven well-known aroma types and their ancestor variety, which were harvested from the same places and manufactured using the same procedure, were investigated using headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Results indicated that the volatile composition and contents of manufactured teas and fresh leaves, including HuangZhi, XingRen, GuiHua, MiLan, JiangHua, YuLan YeLai and Fenghuang Shuixian, were obviously different. Linalool, (E)-2-hexenal, cis-3-hexenyl acetate, linalool oxide, methyl salicylate, geraniol, and nerolidol were the major volatile components in fresh leaves, and their total relative contents ranged from 78.44-90.07%. But in manufactured teas, hotrienol, linalool, β-myrcene, D-limonene, 1-ethyl-1H-pyrrole-2-carboxaldehyde, β-ocimene, linalool oxide, benzyl nitrile, indole, jasmone, and nerolidol were the major volatile components, ranged from 60.12-93.97%. Although there were some similarities in the aroma composition and content among the manufactured teas of different aroma types, each type had unique aroma characteristics. The obvious difference between FengHuang Shuixian and other aroma types of manufactured teas may be due to the higher content of alkene and pyrrole derivatives and lower content of alcohols, especial terpene alcohols. Furthermore, the correlations between manufactured teas and the fresh leaves indicated that the volatile compounds profile of fresh leaves may affect the aroma quality of the manufactured tea. This study provided a comprehensive comparison of the volatile profile in different aroma types of Fenghuang Dancong tea, which is a scientific foundation for further quality assessment of Fenghuang Dancong variety in the future.