Solvent extraction is one of the oldest techniques for the isolation of natural compounds. It is considered to yield artifact-free extracts, if all steps are performed at low (room) temperature (Jerković et al., 2007). However, its drawbacks are the need to use highly purified organic solvents and to concentrate extract prior to analysis, as well as co-extraction of non-volatile compounds not important for the odour. Furthermore, compounds with volatility similar to the solvent may not be seen in the GC chromatogram because of co-elution. During optimisation of SE for buckwheat, three solvents were evaluated: n-pentane, petroleum ether and methanol and addition of water to the sample prior to extraction. Mixing of solvent and sample was achieved by ultrasound and shaking on a mechanical shaker. The highest number of compounds in the extract was obtained by methanol extraction, which was thus chosen for subsequent experiments ( Janeš et al., 2009). Soaking of sample in water did not show any effect on the extraction efficiency. However, lipids from the buckwheat were co-extracted into all three solvents, to the least extent in polar methanol. They were removed by cooling of the extract and skimming off the separated lipid phase. Of the 25 unequivocally identified compounds in the methanol extract (Table 2), all except one (geranic acid) had logKow < 2 (Janeš et al., 2009). It might therefore be assumed that more non-polar compounds were probably lost by the removal of lipid phase.