Changes in key aroma‐active compounds and sensory characteristics of sunflower oils induced by seed roasting

Abstract

This study investigated the changes in aroma composition and perception of sunflower oils induced by seed roasting using sensory‐oriented flavor analysis. Volatile compounds were extracted by solvent‐assisted flavor evaporation and headspace solid‐phase microextraction. Odorants were characterized by gas chromatography‐olfactometry‐mass spectrometry and aroma extract dilution analysis. The cold‐pressed and roasted sunflower oils contained 13 and 50 odorants, respectively, with the flavor dilution factors between 1 and 256. Fifty‐six odorants were newly identified in sunflower oils. Quantification of 26 important odorants by the external standard method revealed apparent changes induced by seed roasting in loss of terpenes, formation of Maillard reaction products, and the increase in lipid oxidation products. The most important odorants (odor active values, OAVs = 1–1857) in the cold‐pressed sunflower oil included α‐pinene (11,145 µg/kg), β‐pinene (4068 µg/kg), linalool (56 µg/kg), hexanal (541 µg/kg), octanal (125 µg/kg), α‐phellandrene (36 µg/kg), and (E)‐2‐octenal (69 µg/kg), contributing to the raw sunflower seed, woody, green, earthy, and sweet aromas of the oil. The most important contributors (OAVs = 1–884) to the roasted, smoky, and burnt aromas of the roasted sunflower oil were 2‐ and 3‐methylbutanal (6726 and 714 µg/kg), 2,6‐dimethylpyrazine (2329 µg/kg), 2,5‐dimethylpyrazine (12,228 µg/kg), 2,3‐dimethylpyrazine (238 µg/kg), 2,3‐pentanedione (1456 µg/kg), 2‐pentylfuran (1332 µg/kg), 2,3‐dimethyl‐5‐ethylpyrazine (213 µg/kg), and 1‐pentanol (693 µg/kg). Aroma recombination of the key odorants in odorless sunflower oil adequately mimicked the general aroma profiles of sunflower oils. This study provides an important foundation for understanding the relationship between oil processing and aroma molecules of sunflower oils. Practical Application The clear changes observed in the composition and concentrations of key aroma compounds explained the changes in sensory characteristics of sunflower seed oils induced by seed roasting on a molecular basis. Characterizing the key aroma‐active composition of sunflower oil and investigating its relationship with oil processing could provide important practical applications for the sunflower oil industry in flavor regulation, quality control, product development, and process optimization.

Comparison of key aroma‐active composition and aroma perception of cold‐pressed and roasted peanut oils

“…Meanwhile, the increase in aldehydes may have suppressed the perceived intensities of raw or roasted peanut seed aromas in the oil samples. Future studies could use solvent assisted flavour evaporation (SAFE) extraction method at low temperature to obtain a more natural aroma extract of peanut oil (Yin et al ., 2022).…”

“…Important aroma-active compounds that were extracted by SDE and had the FD factors ≥ 8 were quantified by the external standard method (Yang et al, 2019). The detailed quantification procedures were well documented in our previously published studies (Yin et al, 2021(Yin et al, , 2022. The mixture of standard aroma compounds was initially dissolved in dichloromethane and was diluted into 12 different concentrations, each of which was spiked with 4-nonanol (0.08 mg mL À1 ) as the internal standard.…”

Differences in Oxidative Stability, Sensory Properties, and Volatile Compounds of Pepper Aromatized Sunflower Oils Prepared by Different Methods during Accelerated Storage

“…Determination of Volatile Compounds: Firstly, the volatile compounds of the sunflower oil samples were extracted by solvent-assisted flavor evaporation (SAFE) method, and the optimization of this method was previously done. [36,37] Briefly, the sunflower oil sample (100.0 g) and 4-nonanol (240.0 µL) as the internal standard were mixed with dichloromethane (225.0 mL) for 10 h at room temperature using a shaker. The mixture was extracted in a SAFE apparatus at 3 × 10 -3 Pa, dehydrated with anhydrous Na 2 SO 4 , and stored for 12 h at −24 °C.…”

Investigation of aroma characteristics of seven Chinese commercial sunflower seed oils using a combination of descriptive Analysis, GC-quadrupole-MS, and GC-Orbitrap-MS

“…Both solvent-assisted flavor evaporation (SAFE) and headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) pretreatments had been used to concentrate volatile compounds in sunflower seed oil ( Guillen et al, 2005 , Yin et al, 2022 ). HS-SPME is one of the most widely reported techniques for the extraction of volatile compounds from sunflower seed oil due to its remarkable advantages such as ease, speed, small sample size, solvent-free system, and automation of the entire extraction process ( Guillen et al, 2005 , Marasca et al, 2016 , Nieva-Echevarria et al, 2019 , Petersen et al, 2012 ).…”