Characterization of volatile compounds in different dried sea cucumber cultivars

Sea cucumber is one of the most well-known and precious seafood in Asian countries. To better understand the sensory properties of dried sea cucumber products, volatile compounds of 8 dried sea cucumber cultivars were analyzed by using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Forty-two volatile compounds comprising aldehydes (13), alcohols (13), aromatic compounds (9), furans (3), and others (4) were identified. Quantitative results revealed that volatile composition in all tested sea cucumbers were similar, but the variation existed in both the composition and the concentrations of some compounds. The concentration of hexanal, heptanal, 1-heptanol and benzaldehyde varied the most among different sea cucumber cultivars. Besides, 2-methyl-butanal, acetophenone, 2-methyl-furan, benzoic acid methyl ester and dimethyl sulfide were only detected in S. japonicus, a Chinese domestic sea cucumber cultivar, which was the main difference in volatile compounds compared with the other cultivars. There were 17 identified compounds which were considered to be odor-active compounds as their concentrations exceeded their odor detection thresholds in water.