Abstract:

This study aimed to determine the aroma components of green tea by headspace solid phase micro-extraction
(HS-SPME) coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The effects of SPME temperature and adsorption
time on the kinds and amounts of aroma compounds in green tea were evaluated. The characteristic aroma components in
three kinds of green teas, Xihu Longjing, Huangshan Maofeng and Xinyang Maojian, were identified. The results showed
that optimum adsorption was achieved using 50/30 μm DVB/CAR/PDMS fiber for adsorption at 80 ℃ for 60 min. A total
of 58 characteristic aroma compounds were found in the three kinds of green tea, with geraniol, 3-hexenyl ester, (Z)-hexanoic
acid, linalool, 1-nonanal and nerolidol being the major aroma compounds in decreasing order of abundance. Canonical
discriminant functions were established using the relative peak areas of 16 aroma compounds common to these three kinds
of tea, which could effectively discriminate among 31 green tea samples with an accuracy of nearly 96.8%.

Key words: headspace solid phase micro-extraction (HS-SPME), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), green tea, aroma components, variety discriminant