Abstract: The volatile aroma components of pomelo peel tea, pomelo peel and green tea were comparatively analyzed by headspace-GC-MS in order to discover the originals and causes of volatile aroma components in pomelo peel tea. It was shown that limonene and myrcene were the major components of three samples. This indicates that limonene and myrcene are not new aroma components transferred from pomelo peel to green tea and not the specific aroma substances of three samples. Several oxygen-containing compounds that can differentiate green tea and pomelo peel were detected in pomelo peel tea, accounting for approximately 5% of the total volatile compounds. The percentage of oxygen-containing compounds was higher than that obtained using simultaneous distillation extraction. The difference may come from the oxidation of alkenes caused by long-term repeated extraction at high temperature during the simultaneous distillation extraction process. However, headspace extraction requires mild reaction conditions, yielding aroma components similar to those released under natural conditions.

Key words: pomelo peel tea, headspace (HS), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), component analysis