Effects of Selenium Nanoparticle Application on Flavor Volatiles of Aromatic Rice

Aromatic rice is famous for its pleasant aroma which consists of many flavor volatiles. The present study was to explore the effects of selenium nanoparticle (SeNP) application on flavor volatiles of aromatic rice based on a worldwide database of flavor molecules accessed on November 19 2024. A field experiment was carried out with the foliar application of SeNP at early growth stage (S1), middle growth stage (S2), and late growth stage (S3) of aromatic rice plants in two cropping seasons. In the control group (CK), no selenium-based treatment was applied. There were in total 27 and 24 flavor volatiles registered in FlavorDB2 detected in aromatic rice in the early and late cropping seasons, respectively. The flavors that appear most often were fat, fresh, fruit, aldehydic, green, sweet, citrus, and waxy. Compared with CK, S3 treatment caused the absence of 5 and 4 flavor volatiles in the early and late seasons, respectively. S2 treatment caused the exclusive presence of 2-undecenal and 3-hexenal,(Z)- in the early season and the exclusive presence of 2-hexenoic acid and decanal in the late season. The results of principal components analysis (PCA) showed that S2 and S3 treatments substantially impacted the flavor volatiles of aromatic rice in the early season while S1 and S2 treatments substantially impacted the flavor volatiles of aromatic rice in the late season. There were 12 and 4 differential flavor volatiles found in the early and late cropping seasons respectively. S2 treatment significantly increased the content of 10 flavor volatiles including 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, benzaldehyde, 2-hexenoic acid, hexanoic acid, octanal, 2-octenal,(E)-, heptanal, 2,4-heptadienal,(E,E)-, 3-hexenoic acid,(E)-, and n-hexadecanoic acid. In addition, the effects of SeNP on flavor volatiles varied between different cropping seasons indicated that climate had a substantial impact on flavor volatiles in aromatic rice. Overall consideration, the heading stage, i.e., the middle growth stage, is the most suitable stage to apply SeNP to maximize the benefits on the flavor volatiles of aromatic rice.