Abstract:

In this work, the volatile compounds in the meat of grass carp were analyzed by headspace solid phase micro-extraction (HS-SPME) followed by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and electronic nose. The results indicated that electronic nose could discriminate dorsal meat, belly meat, red meat from grass carp with different body weights, except dorsal meat and belly meat from big grass carp. A total of 42, 41 and 43 volatile compounds were identified in the dorsal meat, belly meat and red meat of big grass carp, and the numbers of volatile compounds identified in the dorsal meat, belly meat and red meat of small grass carp were 30, 39 and 52, respectively. The volatile compounds found were mainly volatile carbonyl compounds and alcohols, accounting for higher than 90%. The contents of volatile compounds exhibited a significant difference between big and small grass carp.

Key words: grass carp, electronic nose, solid phase micro-extraction (SPME), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), volatile components