Odor-active compounds of different lavender essential oils and their correlation with sensory attributes

Volatile components of lavender (Lavandula officinalis L.) essential oils from five different cities were analyzed by using descriptive sensory analysis, gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O), gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-MS) and statistics analysis. In order to assess the lavender essential oil, six sensory attributes (sweet, floral, woody, fruit, camphor and herb) were selected. Altogether 30 volatile compounds were identified and quantified by GC-MS, like 10 terpenes, 8 alcohols, 7 esters, 2 ketones and 3 other miscellaneous compounds. However, linalyl acetate occupied the largest chemical proportion among the volatiles of the essential oils. The relationship among samples, sensory attributes and aroma compounds was elaborated by using the partial least squares regression (PLSR). It turns out to be the case that limonene, linalool, linalyl acetate, camphor were typical aroma compounds covaried with characteristic aroma of lavender essential oils and the odor of the lavender essential oils was coincided with the geographical distribution.