Identification of the key odorants in raw French beans and changes during cooking

By application of aroma extract dilution analysis (AEDA) to an extract prepared from raw French beans, 25 odour-active compounds with flavour dilution (FD) factors in the range 4-2048 were detected and subsequently identified. Among them, (Z)-3-hexenal (green, leaf-like), 1-octene-3-one (mushroom-like), 3-isobutyl-2-methoxypyrazine (earthy, beany) and (E,Z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber-like) showed the highest FD factors. In an extract prepared from the same amount of cooked beans, 3-isobutyl-2-methoxy-pyrazine was identified as the most potent odorant, followed by 1,5-(Z)-octadiene-3-one (geranium-like), 3-isopropyl-2-methoxypyrazine (earthy, beany), 3-(methylthio)propanal (methional; cooked potato), 4,5-epoxy-(E)-2-decenal (metallic) and an unknown compound (FD 256) with a smell of geranium leaves. A decrease in (Z)-3-hexenal and 1-pentene-3-one (etheral, pungent) and an increase in methional during cooking were shown to be mainly responsible for the flavour changes induced by cooking the beans.