Identification of Major Bitter Compounds in Zanthoxylum bungeanum Under Different Thermal Processing Techniques

Zanthoxylum bungeanum, as a vital spice, the presence of its bitter components has a notable impact on the overall flavor of the food. To deeply explore the formation mechanism of the bitter components in Z. bungeanum and correlated influencing factors, this study used bitterness intensity as an indicator and employed sensory evaluation to optimize the processing conditions of Z. bungeanum during boiling and frying through single-factor optimization. Furthermore, organic solvent extraction, solid-phase extraction, and preparative high-performance liquid chromatography were used to isolate and concentrate the bitter fractions from Z. bungeanum water and oil. Subsequently, taste dilution analysis was employed to evaluate the contribution of these bitter fractions to the sensory characteristics of food. Additionally, high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry was adopted to identify the bitter components in Z. bungeanum water and oil. The results indicated that during the boiling process, increasin