Identification and changes of different volatile compounds in meat of crucian carp under short‐term starvation by GC‐MS coupled with HS‐SPME

The different volatile compounds in meat of crucian carp under short-term starvation stress were investigated in this study by headspace solid-phase microextraction combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometric analysis. The detail workflow included Mzmine, analysis of variance, automatic mass spectral deconvolution and identification system (AMDIS), and genetic algorithm. Seventy-two kinds of volatile compounds were identified by AMDIS and 42 kinds of different compounds were selected including 19 aromatics, 7 alcohols, 1 ketones, 2 aldehydes, 2 esters, and 11 unknown compounds. Samples from starvation groups were separated clearly on principal components analysis by 42 volatile compounds. The results suggest that starvation could cause the change of flavor of fish meat, and the changing patterns of these different volatile compounds were revealed. Practical applications In southern China, farm-raised crucian carps are usually put into clean water under short-term starvation for eliminating smell before they are sold. This phenomenon has attracted the attention of the researcher. The present study reveals the changing patterns of volatile compounds in meat of crucian carp by using headspace solid-phase microextraction–gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and starvation groups were classified based on the volatile data. The results demonstrated that combination of Mzmine, ANOVA, AMDIS, and GA can be applied to select different volatile compounds successfully, and this method could be used for the identification of different compounds in similar gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis.