To study the changes of aroma components in sweet cherry during fruit development, the aroma components in sweet cherry fruit from the green stage, the colour stage, the commercial stage, and the ripe stage were collected using head-space solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME), and were analysed using a gas chromatograph-mass spectrophotometer (GC-MS). A total of 37 compounds were identified from the sample extracts. Aldehydes, alcohols, and esters were the major constituents. The aroma components behaved differently during the fruit developmental period. C6 aldehydes and aromatic aldehydes were the main aldehydes in the sweet cherry fruit. The contents of C6 aldehydes increased quickly to 84.16 in the colour stage, then decreased as ripening proceeded, and then, the contents decreased to 59.20 and 55.58 at the commercial stage and the ripe stage, respectively. The aromatic aldehydes (benzaldehyde) increased as ripening proceeded, and the maximum was found at the ripe stage. Alcohols of sweet cherry fruit included C6 alcohols and aromatic alcohols. The content of (E)-2-hexen-1-o1 increased as ripening proceeded. The maximum was found at the commercial stage; alcohol was only found at the ripe stage. Ester components included ethyl acetate, butanoic acid ethyl ester, hexanoic acid ethyl ester, which increased as the fruit ripened. Hexanal, (E)-2-hexenal, benzaldehyde, (E)-2-hexen-1-01, ethyl acetate, and hexanoic acid ethyl ester were the characteristic aroma components of sweet cherry fruit. These aroma components started to form drastically at the colour stage, and the main aroma was formed at the commercial stage, which then turned bad at the ripe stage because of the presence of alcohol. So the optimal harvest time of sweet cherry was at the commercial stage.
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