Identification of the main aroma compounds in dried seeds of Brassica hirta

The composition of the volatile oil from Sinapis Semen, dried seeds of Brassica hirta (Cruciferae), have been investigated using capillary GC and GC/MS. The important odor-active compounds in the oil were also detected by means of GC-olfactometry (GC-O) and aroma extract dilution analysis (AEDA). The oil was found to contain 68 components, representing 95.36% of the total oil. The main constituents were 4-hydroxybenzeneacetonitrile (29.63%), palmitic acid (14.55%), linoleic acid and oleic acid (9.67%). The AEDA and GC-O analyses showed that heptanal, phenylethylalcohol, (2E)-octenal and (2E, 4E)-dodecadienal are to a large extent responsible for the characteristic flavor of Sinapis Semen.