Abstract: Simultaneous distillation extraction (SDE) followed by GC-MS was used to investigate the volatile flavor composition of pickled mustard root samples from different processing methods. A total of 90 volatile compounds were identified in 4 samples, including raw mustard root, traditional pickled mustard root and its desalted counterpart and mustard root pickled by a novel process, of which 68, 56 and 28 were present in novel pickled mustard root as well as traditional pickled mustard root and its desalted counterpart, respectively. Overall, pickling process results in the formation of many new volatiles. However, more are formed by the new process compared with the other two. Meanwhile, desalting process may result in a substantial loss of volatile compounds.

Key words: mustard root, pickling, volatiles, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)