ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces advances in the analysis of plant volatiles and their applications, focusing on the determination of internal composition and concentration of plant volatiles. Plant volatiles can be roughly categorized on spatio-temporal considerations into three groups. The first group are volatiles stored in plant tissues and are often found in secretary cells or in specific areas in organs such as leaves, fruit skin, petals, roots and rhizomes, and in tree barks. The second group contains volatiles released during physiological events in plants, such as flowering and the ripening of fruit. The third group contains volatiles sequentially produced after wounding. Isotope labeling of trace metabolites is a classic and powerful technique for studying the biosynthetic pathway and metabolic flows of various metabolites because isotope labeled and non-labeled endogenous metabolites have the same chemical properties. Stable isotope labeling of volatiles is also effective for quantification of the corresponding endogenous metabolite.
