Abstract: With rose flowers and buds as test materials, the electronic nose technology was used to investigate the scent characteristics of different varieties of rose flowers and buds through multivariate statistical methods such as cluster analysis, Principal Component Analysis（PCA）and Orthogonal Partial Least-squares Discriminant Analysis（OPLS-DA）. The results showed that, 14 varieties of roses were divided into three categories, and the difference markers among the groups were W1W, W5S, and W2S, namely inorganic sulfides, nitrogen oxides, alcohol ether aldehydes and ketones. The intensity of the three difference markers was group 1 > group 2 > group 3, all of which had significant differences. The flower buds of 8 rose varieties were divided into three categories, and the difference markers among the groups were W5S and W1W, that was, nitrogen oxides and inorganic sulfides. The intensity of the two difference markers was group 1 > group 2 > group 3, all of which had significant differences. There were differences in the content of volatile components between rose flowers and buds. Most rose buds had higher content of volatile components than rose flowers, while a few rose buds had lower content of volatile components than rose flowers or had little difference in component contents. The main difference markers were W1W, W5S, W2S and W2W, that was, inorganic sulfides, nitrogen oxides, alcohol-ether aldehydes ketones, and organic sulfides. Electronic nose technology could quickly and effectively distinguish the difference of volatile components of different varieties of rose flowers and buds, and which could provide reference for rose aroma research and rose quality evaluation.

Key words: rose flower, rosebud, scent, electronic nose