Microwave pretreatment of camellia (Camellia oleifera Abel.) seeds: Effect on oil flavor

•Three techniques were combined to explore the flavor of camellia seed oil.•W1W, W2W and W5S were the main sensors to distinguish the camellia seed oils.•Alcohols and esters were the main compounds with short microwave processing time.•Heterocycles and aldehydes increased with the increased of microwave processing time.•22 key aroma compounds were screened by odor activity value analysis. Microwave is a new pretreatment technology, and microwave processing time of camellia seeds is a factor affecting the flavor of camellia seed oil (CSO). Therefore, this study on the characteristic volatile compounds of CSO from microwaved seeds with different processing time was carried out by electronic nose (E-nose), headspace-solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) and headspace-gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (HS-GC-IMS). The results of E-nose show that W1W, W2W and W5S were the main sensors to distinguish the flavor profile of CSOs. Through HS-SPME-GC-MS and odor activity value analysis, 80 volatile compounds were detected and 22 key aroma compounds were screened in CSOs. Compared with HS-SPME-GC-MS, 44 volatile compounds were detected by HS-GC-IMS, including 9 identical compounds and 35 different compounds. In general, the volatile compounds of 0, 2 and 3 min CSOs were mainly alcohols and esters, while the 4, 5 and 6 min CSOs were mainly heterocycles and aldehydes.