Volatile organic compounds of Angelica gigas Nakai, Korean medicinal herb.

The study was performed to find out the profile of volatile flavor components from the aromatic medicinal plant, Angelica gigas Nakai. The volatile organic compounds of A. gigas Nakai were extracted by simultaneous steam distillation and extraction (SDE) method, and identified by gas chromatograph/mass spectrometric (GC/MS) analysis. A total of 116 compounds, including 40 hydrocarbons, 37 alcohols, 15 esters, 12 aldehydes, 7 ketones, and 5 miscellaneous were identified and quantified. Among them, 75 volatile organic compounds were detected which make up 90.52% of total volatile content. alpha-Pinene was detected as the prime volatile component which accounted for 30.89% of total volatile content and 2,4,6-trimethyl heptane, camphene, alpha-limonene, beta-eudesmol, vervenol, alpha-murrolene, and sphatulenol were detected as the major components of A. gigas Nakai.