Identification of Volatile Flavor Components in Oyster Mushrooms

Oyster mushrooms are one of the most commonly eaten mushrooms in the world. There are 202 edible mushroom species in this widespread edible fungi family, primarily found in their grey form. Other forms include Golden, Pink, Phoenix, and King oyster mushrooms. One type of this mushroom species (Pleurotus ostreatus) was chosen for the study. Headspace-solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) was used to extract a broad range of volatile analytes from raw, boiled, steamed, microwaved, and fried oyster mushrooms. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to visualize patterns and identify the most discriminative compounds that contribute to the differences among the cooking methods. The combination of HS-SPME, GC-MS, and PCA provided a robust and comprehensive analytical approach for characterizing the volatile profile of oyster mushrooms.