The demand for mint is increasing from year to year, and it is more important than ever to secure a sustainable and robust supply of such an important plant. The USDA mint core collection provides the basis for many researches worldwide regarding, e.g., sequencing, cytology, and disease resistances. A recently developed toolbox enables here for the first time the analysis of such a complex collection in terms of the aroma compound composition and the mapping of flavor alterations depending on taxonomy, environmental conditions, and growing stages by means of comprehensive liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Therefore, in this study, not only the aroma compound composition of 153 genotypes was characterized but it was also demonstrated that the composition varies depending on taxonomy and changes during the growth of the plant. Furthermore, it could be shown that greenhouse conditions have an enormous influence on the concentrations of aroma compounds.
Keywords: 3-NPH; GTMA; LC−MS/MS; USDA mint core collection; aroma compounds; high-throughput toolbox; mint.