Free and glycosidically bound aroma compounds of ash gourd were investigated. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis of the free aroma compounds isolated by both steam distillation and high vacuum distillation revealed the presence of acetoin as the major constituent in both the oils. Acetoin was also identified as the major constituent existing as glycosidic conjugate. GC– olfactometry (GC–O) of the volatile oil based on detection frequency (olfactometry global analysis) was further used to characterise odour active compounds of the vegetable. Based on odour activity value (OAV) measurements the potent odorant among these were identified as acetoin (9522.5), octanal (8571) and nonanal (24,000). The region corresponding to the characteristic ash gourd aroma when collected by cryotrapping from a packed GC column and subsequently analysed by GC/MS was found to be mainly comprising of acetoin suggesting the role of this compound as the key odour active compound of this vegetable.