ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Food Chemistry
This article is part of the Research TopicTransforming Food By-products into Functional Ingredients for Sustainable NutritionView all 4 articles
Unraveling the volatile profile and bioactivity of Zhoupigan (Citrus reticulata cv. Manau Gan) essential oil via HS-GC-IMS and HS-SPME-GC-MS: A comprehensive evaluation of different extraction techniques
Provisionally accepted
- Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Zhoupigan (Citrus reticulata cv. Manau Gan), also known as Zangju or Shitougan, is a distinctive Chinese citrus resource valued for both traditional medicinal uses and food flavoring, and is notably rich in essential oils (EOs). However, the chemical composition and bioactivity of Zhoupigan peel essential oil (ZJPEO) remain insufficiently understood, limiting its effective utilization. In this study, ZJPEO was extracted by steam distillation (SD) and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) and analyzed using FTIR, E-nose, HS-GC-IMS and HS-SPME-GC-MS. FTIR and E-nose revealed clear compositional differences between steam-distilled essential oil (SDEO) and supercritical fluid-extracted essential oil (SFEO). HS-GC-IMS detected 63 VOCs and, based on VIP > 1, identified five marker compounds. HS-SPME-GC-MS identified 1250 VOCs, showing terpenoids and esters as major contributors to aroma and bioactivity. KEGG enrichment highlighted sesquiterpene and triterpene biosynthesis as key pathways. Flavor wheel analysis indicated that SFEO had stronger sweet, green, and woody notes and exhibited potent antioxidant and antimicrobial activities associated with specific VOCs. Overall, this work supports optimizing ZJPEO extraction and promoting its value-added, sustainable utilization.
Keywords: Bioactivity, essential oils, HS-GC-IMS, HS-SPME-GC-MS, Zhoupigan (Citrus reticulata cv. Manau Gan)
Received: 25 Dec 2025; Accepted: 09 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Xu, Zou, Gan, Fu, Chen, Chen, Hu and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Youping Liu
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.