Abstract:

Both HS-SPME-GC-MS and E-Nose techniques were applied to identify aroma compounds from abdomen, claw,
leg meats and spawn of female Eriocheir sinensis cultured in Songjiang region. E-Nose results showed that aroma profile from
four edible parts could be distinguished well. As a result of GC-MS analysis, 48 volatiles that can be divided into 7 species were
identified in four parts and further quantified based on internal standard analysis. Odor activity values (OAVs) of these aroma
compounds were calculated according to their thresholds, as reported in the literature. Twelve key aroma-active compounds,
such as decanal, were further selected according to their OAVs and analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA) and
cluster analysis (CA) procedures. PCA results showed 5 compounds including 2-ethylfuran to be characteristic aroma-active
compounds (CAACs) from claw, leg meat and spawn. However, CA results showed that the twelve aroma-active compounds
could be classified into 3 clusters and each cluster contained only one CAAC for a certain edible part. As a conclusion, a new
path for CAAC selection from aquatic products like Eriocheir sinensis, has been successfully established by us relying on
several multivariate statistical methods.

Key words: Chinese mitten crab, aroma compounds, odor activity value, GC-MS, E-Nose