Abstract:

In this work, the volatile compounds of grass carp meat were extracted and concentrated by headspace solid phase
micro-extraction (HS-SPME) and identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The optimum operating
conditions for the HS-SPME method were determined as follows: extraction for 40 min using a 65 μm PDMS/DVB SPME
fiber at different temperatures; the initial column temperature was set at 40 ℃ for 2 min and programmed to increase to 160 ℃
at a rate of 4 ℃/min, then to 250 ℃ at a rate of 10 ℃/min and kept at 250 ℃ for 5 min. The results of GC-MS analysis
showed that 23, 43, 52, 68 and 74 volatile compounds were detected in dorsal meat of cultured grass carp extracted at 30, 45,
60, 80 and 95 ℃, respectively. Moreover, it was found that with increasing extraction temperature, the number of volatile
compounds identified from grass carp meat and the contents of alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, aromatic and hydrocarbon
compounds were significantly altered. The volatile compounds detected at 80 and 95 ℃ were not significantly different,
which may represent the flavor characteristics of cooked grass carp meat. 1-Hexanol, 1-octen-3-ol, hexanal, 2,3-octanedione
and other saturated aldehydes are generally considered to be mainly responsible for the flavor aquatic products. We found
that the contents of these compounds considerably changed with temperature.

Key words: temperature, grass carp meat, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), volatile compounds