Thermally treated watermelon juice (TW) presents a strong unpleasant smell, resulting in poor consumer acceptance. It is necessary to identify the key off-flavor compounds in TW. Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and solvent-assisted flavor evaporation (SAFE) coupled with gas chromatography–olfactometry–mass spectrometry (GC–O–MS) were applied to the extraction and analysis of the volatile compounds in TW. Five aroma-active compounds and seven off-flavor compounds were quantitatively analyzed by the standard curve method. Based on the flavor dilution factor (FD), odor attribute, odor activity value (OAV) of volatile compounds, and partial least-squares regression (PLSR) analysis, seven key off-flavor compounds were preliminarily identified as follows: (E)-2-heptenal, decanal, octanol, diisopropyl disulfide, hexanol, (E)-2-decenal, and (E)-2-octenol. Aroma recombination proved that these off-flavor compounds above had a negative impact on the overall flavor in TW. Omission experiments were taken to confirm them further. Finally, octanol, diisopropyl disulfide, and (E)-2-decenal were identified as the most potent off-flavor compounds in TW.

Based on the well-known toxicity of cyclophosphamide (CYP) on the immune system, this research investigated the modulating effects of the long-term dietary Chlorella vulgaris (CV) supplementation on the immunosuppression induced by CYP in mice, in order to provide a novel dietary design to mitigate the side effects of CYP therapy. Control, CYP-treated, CYP + CV (6%), CYP + CV (12%) and CYP + CV (24%) were used for 6 weeks, CV supplement in diet recovered the significantly reduced immunological function in CYP treated mice. As CV may have a modulating function through the inducible expression of cytokines, we assayed the expressions of interleukin-2 (IL-2), interleukin-12 (IL-12), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interferon-γ (IFN-γ). Our results suggested that CYP significantly reduced the lymphocytes proliferation and phagocytic activities of macrophages, and stimulated the production of IL-2, IL-12, TNF-α and IFN-γ and that this impairment has been successfully adjusted by CV supplementation. Treatment with the algae also enhanced the natural killer (NK) cells cytotoxicity, and ameliorate histological changes of the spleen in CYP-treated mice. Therefore, as we found in this study, a diet supplemented with whole CV has beneficial effects on CVP-induced immunosuppression, through its immunomodulatory potential.