Abstract:

A method of SPME coupled with GC-MS was developed and applied for the determination of flavor compounds
in three kinds of Chinese cabbages, including ordinary cabbages, green cabbages, and cabbages treated with formaldehyde.
A total of 14 compounds in the cabbages as characteristic peaks were identified and quantified by area normalization method.
A clustering model was established with the data of the characteristic peaks by discriminant analysis (DA). The randomly
selected samples were used to verify the accuracy of prediction for Chinese cabbage types. The results showed that the
accuracy rate was more than 95%. Hence, SPME-GC-MS combined with DA analysis was effective for judging Chinese
cabbage types, which provided a scientific reference for analyzing the safety and quality of Chinese cabbages.

Key words: Chinese cabbage, flavor compounds, solid phase microextraction, gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry, discriminant analysis