Investigation on the changes of odor-active compounds of Amomum tsao-ko during natural drying

To characterize the key odorants in Amomum tsao-ko (AT) and to investigate their changes during natural drying, volatile compounds of AT were extracted and analyzed by solvent extraction combined with solvent-assisted flavor evaporation and gas chromatographymass spectrometry–olfactometry. A total of 41 aroma-active compounds with flavor dilution factors ranging from 3 to 6561 were identified in AT. Fourteen odorants were determined to be the key odorants by quantitation analyses, odor activity value (OAV) calculations, recombination and omission experiments. To further investigate the changes in aroma components in AT during natural drying, the concentrations and OAVs of odor-active compounds were measured at 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, and 20 days. The results showed that the number of aroma-active components did not change during natural drying, but their content changed with different trends. The concentration of geraniol showed a continuous upward trend; those of hexanal, octanal, nonanal and pinocarvone decreased first and then increased; those of α-pinene, sabinene, 2-nonanone, (E)− 2-octenal, 2-nonanol, 4-terpineol, epidolichodial and (E,E)− 2,4-dodecadienal changed on a fluctuating trend, while those of the other 28 compounds showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing. These results provide a theoretical basis for further utilization of AT.