Comparison of volatile flavor compounds of Artemisia annua L. extracted by simultaneous steam distillation extraction and solid-phase micro extraction

This study was conducted to compare the volatile flavor compounds of Artemisia annua L. after extraction by simultaneous steam distillation extraction (SDE) and solid-phase micro extraction (SPME) followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Via SDE and SPME processes, 79 (1,254.00 mg/kg) and 39 (488.74 mg/kg) compounds were identified respectively. The compounds extracted by SDE included 27 alcohols, 13 aldehydes, 22 hydrocarbons, 3 esters, 12 ketones, 1 oxide and 1 N-containing compound, on the other hand, using the SPME method, 7 alcohols, 5 aldehydes, 1 ester, 18 hydrocarbons, 7 ketones, and 1 oxide were extracted. The major volatile flavor compounds of Artemisia annua L. isolated by the two methods were caryophyllene oxide, β-caryophyllene, camphor, β-selinene, γ-muurolene, 1,8-cineol, (E)-pinocarveol and pinocarvone. The sesquiterpene named caryophyllene oxide was the most abundant volatile flavor compound with relative contents of 234.16 mg/kg and 195.44 mg/kg obtained by the SDE and SPME methods, respectively. Among the identified volatiles, sabinene, β-pinene, α-terpinene, γ-terpinene, yomogi alcohol, myrtenol, (Z)-nerolidol, p-cymen-8-ol and eugenol were detected by the SDE method only while (E)-anethole and α-cubebene were detected by the SPME method only. This study confirmed that the composition and contents of the volatile flavor compounds vary between different extraction methods. More volatile flavor compounds were identified using the SDE method than the SPME method.