Rhus coriaria (Sumac) is a fruit grown worldwide for its fruit culinary use as flavoring agent and health benefits. Despite several studies on R. coriaria non-volatile metabolites, much less is recognized concerning volatiles composition within that genus. In an effort to expand on Sumac flavor profile and in its food products, we report on volatile profiling from 3 accessions of different origins including Palestine, Jordan and Egypt in addition to its cold beverage and post roasting via headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME).Under optimized conditions, 74 volatile components were identified belonging to alcohols, aromatics, esters, ethers, furan/aldehyde, hydrocarbons, ketones, monoterpenes, oxides and sesquiterpene hydrocarbons. Major identified components included α-pinene, naphthalene and o-cymene in Palestinian, Jordanian and Egyptian Sumac, respectively. Whereas, sesquiterpenes amounted for the major volatile class in fresh R. coriaria at ca. 40-58 %, furan/aldehydes were the predominant classes in roasted fruits (58%). Volatiles abundance data was further subjected to multivariate data analyses revealing furfural and nonanal enrichment in roasted compared to fresh fruits and its cold beverage preparation.Seeds exhibited no aroma components which justify for its removal in R. coriaria prior to its use as food flavor. Such knowledge is expected to be the key for understanding the olfactory and taste properties of R. coriaria and its several food products.PeerJ reviewing PDF |