Physico-chemical changes and volatile constituents observed in 10 apricot cultivars during post-harvest ripening

J. Goliáš, J. Létal, L. Dokoupil and B. Krška
Additional contact information
J. Goliáš: Department of Post-Harvest Technology of Horticultural Products, Faculty of Horticulture, Mendel University in Brno, Lednice, Czech Republic
J. Létal: Advanced Drug Development Services, Brno, Czech Republic
L. Dokoupil: Department of Breeding and Propagation of Horticultural Plants, Faculty of Horticulture, Mendel University in Brno, Lednice, Czech Republic
B. Krška: Department of Fruit Growing and Propagation, Mendel University in Brno, Lednice, Czech Republic

Horticultural Science, 2013, vol. 40, issue 3, 102-110

Abstract: Physico-chemical changes included a significant decrease in firmness during post-harvest ripening, whereas the levels of total soluble solids were found to be very similar. Ethylene as a parameter of ripening contributed to the resolution of cultivars in the over-ripe phase. On the other hand, fruit softening was not a useful parameter for distinguishing cultivars. 59 of volatiles were determined by the static headspace SPME gas chromatography with mass spectrometry and included 18 alcohols, 12 aldehydes, 10 esters, 11 terpenes, 5 lactones and 3 miscellaneous. Actually, the production of alcohols at ripe stage had almost been completed, since at the over-ripe stage they increased only slightly. Terpene levels were highest for the medium-late cultivars (Orangered, Velkopavlovická, Pinco, Silvercot and Leskora); they were predominantly limonene, α-terpineol and β-Ionone. The decrease in the concentration of terpenes in over-ripe fruit was statistically significant. There are six compounds (2-methylbutan-1-ol, 2-methylbutanal, n-hexylbutanoate, 3-methyl-3-methylbutyric acid, γ-caprolactone and γ-octalactone) which taken together can be used to distinguish the two different stages of maturity, ripe and over-ripe. The most abundant of these are γ-caprolactone and γ-octalactone, followed by 2-methylbutan-1-ol. If the volatiles from the cultivars used in this investigation are compared using cv. Bergeron as a standard, then only 10 are required to separate each variety at the over-ripe phase. Principal component analysis clearly separated the cvs Velkopavlovická and Bergeron from all the others, which probably reflects major differences in the production of volatiles and ethylene.

Keywords: volatile compounds; ethylene; respiration rate; firmness; HP-SPME-GC-MS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hortsci.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/72/2012-HORTSCI.html (text/html)
http://hortsci.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/72/2012-HORTSCI.pdf (application/pdf)
free of charge

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:caa:jnlhor:v:40:y:2013:i:3:id:72-2012-hortsci

DOI: 10.17221/72/2012-HORTSCI

Access Statistics for this article

Horticultural Science is currently edited by Ing. Eva Karská (Executive Editor)

More articles in Horticultural Science from Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ivo Andrle ().