Study on the Volatile Components in Flowers of 12 Camellia Species

The volatile components in the flowers of 12 Camellia species were extracted by using headspace solid-phase micro-extraction (HS-SPME) and then analyzed by using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). As the results, 234 compounds were identified, accounting for 99.58% of the total volatile compounds, mainly including aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, esters, terpenes, hydrocarbons, acids and others. The highest number of the volatile compounds (88) were found in Camellia saluenensis Stapf ex Bean, and the least (41) were found in Camellia liberofilamenta Chang et C.H.Yang. 51 types of compounds were found in most plants of 12 species, among which 5 compounds were owned by 100%, 8 compounds were owned by 90%, 10 compounds were owned by 80%, 10 compounds were owned by 70%, and 18 compounds were owned by 50% of the total plants, respectively. 100 compounds were owned by less than 50% of the total plants. 86compounds were unique for different species. Classification analysis showed that the content of alcohol compounds were the highest (29.87%), followed by terpene (27.79%) and esters (22.48%). L-Linaloo was the compounds with the highest relative amount (75.94%), followed by (Z)-3-Hexenyl acetate (42.48%), Heptan-2-one (31.67%), (Z)-3-Hexen-1-ol (23.79%), and (S)-2-Heptanol (20.95%).