Identification of key aroma components in Rose Lujiu from different origins based on e-nose, e-tongue, GC-MS and GC-IMS

Thunb. can be skillfully blended with high-quality, mellow Baijiu to produce Rose Lujiu (RL), which emits a delightful aroma. In this study, e-nose, e-tongue, GC-MS, and GC-IMS were employed to analyze the aromatic compounds. Relative odor activity value (ROAV) analysis and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) were employed to comprehensively assess volatile compounds and predict key aroma compounds. A total of 111 volatile compounds were identified using GC-MS analysis. Additionally, GC-IMS analysis identified a total of 70 aroma compounds, among which 13 key contributors to the aroma were determined based on odor activity thresholds. These results indicate that ethyl acetate, ethyl butanoate, propyl hexanoate, and 3-methyl-1-butanol emerged as pivotal odorants enabling discrimination among different RL samples. These findings would provide valuable data for the application of commercial samples in the flavor modulation of RL.