Analysis of the volatile components of tea seed oil (Camellia sinensis O. Ktze) from China using HS-SPME-GC/MS

Summary Tea seed oil is unique to Asia and boasts significant nutritional and health benefits. In this study, the volatile components of tea seed oil from eight major producing areas in China were analysed using HS‐SPME‐GC/MS. The comparison was made among them to obtain their characteristic volatile compounds. After fibre selection and extraction and desorption condition optimisation, 194 types of volatile components, mainly consisting of aldehydes, pyrazines and esters, were detected. Three principle components were obtained by principal component analysis (PCA), allowing the different cultivars of tea seed oil to be characterised with strong correlation coefficients between factors. Both cluster discriminant analysis and PCA showed that geographical regions could influence the composition and content of tea seed oil's volatile components. Volatile component analysis of tea seed oil.