Abstract:

The volatile components of 6 essetial oils from peony flowers extracted by 4 different methods, namely
supercritical CO2 extraction, subcritical fluid extraction, steam distillation extraction and organic solvent extraction (with
three different solvents, respectively), were analyzed by headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-GCMS)
with a TG-5MS capillary column. A total of 32 volatile components were detected, including arenes, aleohols, esters,
alkanes, ethers, ketones and aldehydes. The composition and relative contents of volatile components were significantly
different among six peony essential oils. 1,3,5-Trimethoxybenzene, γ-nonanolactone and cetane were common to these
6 samples. 1,3,5-Trimethoxybenzene was the most abundant volatile component for all these oils. The peony essential
oil extracted by supercritical CO2 extraction emitted a heavy flowery scent and showed the highest yield among the four
extraction methods suggesting supercritical CO2 extraction is suitable for industrial production of peony essential oil.
Although steam distillation extraction provided the lowest yield of peony essential oil, the oil extracted by this method
contained the most abundant natural flavor components and thus it is suitable for the production of peony flower water.

Key words: oil-producing peony, peony essential oil, headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-GC-MS), volatile component