Abstract: In order to reveal the aroma material basis of Zhongyantexiang 301 (TX301), a new flue-cured tobacco variety with characteristic aroma, the volatile and semi volatile aroma components of TX301 and Zhongyan100 (ZY100) were determined by headspace-solid phase microextraction arrow coupled with gas chromatograph mass spectrometry (HS-SPME arrow-GC/MS), principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) method was used to analyze the characteristic aroma components in TX301. The results showed that:(1) there were 102 volatile aroma components in the two materials, including 20 plastid pigment degradation products, 32 maillard reaction products, 12 phenylalanine and lignin degradation products, 2 cembranoids degradation products, 2 lipid metabolism degradation products, 5 amino acid degradation products and 29 degradation products from other ways. (2) compared with ZY100, there were 46 aroma components significantly different in TX301, including 9 plastid pigment degradation products, 15 maillard reaction products, 4 phenylalanine and lignin degradation products, and 2 lipid metabolism degradation products, 2 amino acid degradation products, 14 degradation products from other ways, most of the aroma components (41) contents increased. The performance of TX301 characteristic aroma may be closely related to the significant increase of aroma components. Plastid pigment degradation products, especially carotenoid degradation products, play a major role in the formation of flower aroma of TX301.