AROMA VOLATILES DURING WHOLE MELON RIPENING IN A CLIMACTERIC NEAR-ISOGENIC LINE AND ITS INBRED NON-CLIMACTERIC PARENTS

A climacteric aromatic near-isogenic line (NIL) of melon (Cucumis melo L.) SC3-5-1 was obtained from non-climacteric parents: the Korean cultivar ‘Shongwan Charmi’ accession PI 161375 (SC), and the cultivar ‘Piel de Sapo’ (PS). The aroma volatiles of individual fruit of the lines were monitored during ripening at 20°C, using headspace sampling by sorptive bar extraction and gas-chromatography mass-spectrometry.
The compounds were grouped and plotted using area counts and relative percentages compared with total area counts of the compounds positively identified or the total headspace.
By area, the predominant compounds were esters in SC3-5-1 and SC, while acids and, to a lesser extent, aldehydes, ketones, terpenes and aliphatic compounds were more notable in PS. The most noticeable changes in aroma volatiles associated with the climacteric NIL SC3-5-1 were an increase of total acetate esters, and the sudden conversion of alcohols into non-acetate esters during the first seven days of ripening, coinciding with maximum ethylene production.
The area of acetate esters was two- to three-fold higher in SC3-5-1 than in SC. In the non-aromatic SC, the relative levels of acetate and non-acetate esters were around 30-40 and 40-50%, respectively, reaching a relative minimum for acetate and a relative maximum for non-acetate esters.
In PS, volatile acids increased during ripening with a peak after 5 d (40%), while the relative level of esters in PS slightly increased after 7 d.
The PS aldehydes showed relatively high levels at harvest (35%) but decreased after two days.
The SC introgression alone or interacting with the PS genetic background determined the aroma in the climacteric NIL SC3-5-1.

XXVIII International Horticultural Congress on Science and Horticulture for People (IHC2010): International Symposium on Postharvest Technology in the Global Market

J.P. Fernández-Trujillo, M. Fernández-Talavera, M. Ruiz-León, M.J. Roca , N. Dos-Santos

Cucumis melo, climacteric behavior, headspace stir bar sorptive extraction, postharvest fruit quality, flavor, volatile organic compounds

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2012.934.127