Abstract
Blueberries originated from North America and the predominant cultivated species are Vaccinium corymbosum (Northern and Southern Highbush), Vaccinium ashei (Southern Rabbiteye), and Vaccinium angustifolium (Lowbush). Consumer’s demand for high-quality blueberry fruits has driven the interest to better understand the flavor chemistry of blueberry. Forty-five previously identified aroma contributing compounds were further investigated in 11 blueberry varieties, including some developing types. Based on odor activity value, branch-chain esters, terpenes, and aldehydes could be the primary aroma contributors to all 11 blueberry varieties. A heatmap with hierarchical clustering dendrogram showed that the three varieties ORUS 235-4, ORUS 235-3, and ORUS-10-1 were close together with a high level of branch-chain esters and, in turn, close to ‘Draper’ and ‘Duke’. However, they differed from the other varieties, including ‘Aurora’, ‘Bluecrop’, ‘Elliott’, ‘Legacy’, ‘Liberty,’ and ORUS-202-2. One-way ANOVA analysis demonstrated that terpenoids varied the most among varieties. Also, the Pearson correlation showed terpenoids, except eucalyptol, exhibited a strong positive correlation, especially between linalool and α-terpineol. Enantiomer analysis revealed S-(+)-linalool was dominant in all blueberries, whereas the S-(−)-α-terpineol was slightly higher than R-(+)-α-terpineol. This study provided a detailed volatile composition database for unraveling the complex genetics of the various blueberry flavor aspects to assist the breeding purposes of new blueberry crops.
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