VOLATILE COMPOUNDS IN FOUR SPECIES OF THAI WATERLILY (NYMPHAEA SPP.)

Thai waterlily (Nymphaea spp.) is an edible aquatic flowering plant which is rich in nutrients, such as gamma-tocopherol and vitamin E, and provides a variety of colour and aroma compounds; however, little is known about these chemical compounds. In this study, volatile compounds in four waterlily species, namely Nymphaea ‘King of Siam’ (dark blue purple petal), N. carpensis var. zanzibariensis (red purple petal), N. ‘Mangala Ubol’ (orange-yellow petal) and N. ‘Gloriosa’ (pinkpetal) were determined by diethyl ether: n-pentane (1:1) solvent extraction system and gas chromatography-mass spectrophotometry (GC-MS). N. capensis var. zanzibariansis and N. ‘Mangala Ubol’ contained higher alcohols and esters of benzyl alcohol, ethyl hexadecanoate and benzyl decanoate and at the same time, received the highest sensory score for aroma. N. ‘Gloriosa’ aroma was least desired due probably to the presence of a large number of alkanes such as heptadecane, heneicosane, nonadecane and eicosane.