为分析薄荷香精的质量稳定性，本研究采用优化的气相色谱-质谱法分析薄荷香精中主要挥发性成分，并使用2-甲氧基-3-甲基吡嗪作为内标对薄荷香精中香气成分进行定量分析。计算组分含量的相对标准偏差及相似度等指标分析同一公司的5个不同批次薄荷香精的相似度，并采用聚类分析法对批次间薄荷香精风味品质稳定性进行分析。5个批次薄荷香精共有123种挥发性成分，主要包括薄荷脑、大茴香脑、香芹酮、薄荷酮等。2-蒎烯、2-甲基丁酸乙酯、乙位蒎烯、桧烯等40种物质的相似度高于0.99，可用作薄荷香精的特征指纹峰。相对标准偏差分析结果表明不同批次间的样品质量会有一定的波动，聚类分析验证了该结果。综合以上，气相色谱-质谱指纹图谱结合聚类分析可较好的应用于薄荷香精风味品质稳定性分析。

In order to evaluate the flavor quality stability of peppermint essential oils, a quantitative analysis method based on an optimized gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) technique was developed using the 2-methoxy-3-methylpyrazine as internal standard. To analyze the stability of the 5 peppermint flavor samples, similarity degree and relative standard deviation were calculated and cluster analysis (CA) was conducted. One hundred and twenty three flavor components were determined. The main volatile components were menthol, anethol, carvone, menthone, and the others. The similarity degrees of 2-pinene and the other 40 components were higher than 0.99. These 40 components could be used as fingerprints of the peppermint flavors. The results of relative standard deviation and CA showed that there existed differences between the 5 peppermint flavor samples. The results indicated that GC-MS with CA could be used for the analysis of flavor quality stability of peppermint flavors.