Comparison of aroma active and sulfur volatiles in three fragrant rice cultivars using GC–Olfactometry and GC–PFPD

•22–26 aroma-active volatiles from 3 fragrant rice types identified and compared.•Sulfur volatile PCA patterns were unique for each rice type.•Five aroma-active volatiles were sulfur-based. Aroma volatiles from three cooked fragrant rice types (Jasmine, Basmati and Jasmati) were characterised and identified using SPME GC–O, GC–PFPD and confirmed using GC–MS. A total of 26, 23, and 22 aroma active volatiles were observed in Jasmine, Basmati and Jasmati cooked rice samples. 2-Acetyl-1-pyrroline was aroma active in all three rice types, but the sulphur-based, cooked rice character impact volatile, 2-acetyl-2-thiazoline was aroma active only in Jasmine rice. Five additional sulphur volatiles were found to have aroma activity: dimethyl sulphide, 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol, 2-methyl-3-furanthiol, dimethyl trisulphide, and methional. Other newly-reported aroma active rice volatiles were geranyl acetate, β-damascone, β-damascenone, and ɑ-ionone, contributing nutty, sweet floral attributes to the aroma of cooked aromatic rice. The first two principal components from the principal component analysis of sulphur volatiles explained 60% of the variance. PC1 separated Basmati from the other two cultivars and PC2 completely separated Jasmine from Jasmati cultivars.