sweet potato (ipomoea batatas l.) is a tuberous root crop that is extensively cultivated in the tropical regions. when baked, it has a characteristic odor. to be able to identify the odor-active compounds, aroma extraction dilution analysis (aeda) was performed with gas chromatography-olfactometry (gc-o) method. the odor activity value was performed in order to determine the relative contribution of each compound to the odor of the sweet potatoes. the result indicated that a total of seventy-five compounds from ipomoea batatas l. cv ayamurasaki, beniazuma and simon 1 were identified by gc-mass spectrometry (gc-ms), which accounted for 91.6%, 84.1% and 87.7%, respectively. the main components of volatile oil from ayamurasaki were hexadecanoic acid (22.4%), phenylacetaldehyde (10.2%), guaiacol (3.9%) and p-vinylguaiacol (3.8%). eighteen odor-active compounds were identified, including phenylacetaldehyde (floral odor), maltol (sweet odor) and methional (potato odor). characteristic aroma from two other kinds of sweet potatoes (beniazuma and simon 1) were investigated.