| Abstract: | The volatile compounds of 85 regional apricot cultivars native to China were characterized by headspace-solid phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. A total of 156 volatile compounds were tentatively detected, 62 of which were identified in apricots for the first time. The composition and concentration of the volatile compounds varied greatly among the cultivars, with the number of individual compounds per cultivar ranging from 39 to 85, at concentrations of 9.0 to 296.5 mg/kg fresh weight. The apricots from northwest China had the highest concentrations of volatile compounds, while those from the southwest had the lowest concentrations. Based on principal component analysis, the cultivars were divided into four groups characterized by their volatile profiles: 1) terpenoids; 2) aldehydes; 3) terpenoids and aldehydes; and 4) an absence of characteristic volatiles. The greatest diversity of volatile compounds was found in cultivars from northwest China, while the diversity diminished progressively for the cultivars of north, northeast, and southwest China, indicating that the volatile profiles of the cultivars corresponded to their different ecogeographical groups. |
