Identification of Volatile Fragrant Compounds of Chinese Dates by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry(GC-MS) Analysis

The identification of volatile oil from three species of Chinese dates produced in Shaanxi Province was carried out by steam distillation and the treatment of the distillation with ethyl ether to obtain oil fraction. The volatile oil was identified by GS-MS. The results showed that there were 8 aldehydes and ketones,13 esters, 14 organic acids, 17 alkanes and olefines, 5 ether and furan derivatives, benzyl alcohol and benzothiazole among the 59 identified compounds. The various compounds were separated from the three species of dates, except for the same compounds in each sample. The Δ⁹-hexadecenoic acid was the most significant content among the organic acids. The finding of 1-isopropyl-4,7-dimethyl-hexadien-1-y)-2-buten-1-one from the volatile oil of dates was reported first.