Effect of Various Postharvest Treatment on Aroma Volatile Compounds of Blood Orange Fruit Exposed to Chilling Temperature After Long-Term Storage

Abstract

The aim of this work was to study the composition of aroma volatile compounds (AVCs) of blood orange cv. Moro treated with γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), methyl jasmonate (MeJA) or methyl salicylate (MeSA) by headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-GC-MS). GABA at 20 and 40 mM was vacuum infiltrated (at 30 kPa for 8 min), and MeJA or MeSA at 50 and 100 μM (vapour treatments) was applied separately at 20 °C for 18 h. AVCs were measured at harvest and at the end of the experiment (150 days at 3 °C + 2 days at 20 °C, shelf life) for all control and treated fruits. The most abundant compound was limonene, followed by β-myrcene and α-pinene. α-Thujene, camphene, β-pinene, n-decane, α-phellandrene, α-terpinene, p-cymene, (E)-β-ocimene, citronellyl acetate and γ-terpinene were affected by treatments after long-term cold storage. The highest and the lowest percentages of limonene were measured in control samples (94.31 ± 1) and fruits treated with 100 μM MeSA (86.68 ± 1), respectively. (E)-Caryophyllene and (E)-ethyl cinnamate were not detected in all samples after 150 days of cold storage. The multivariate statistical analysis revealed that β-myrcene, n-decane, linalool, limonene, trans-limonene oxide, ethyl hexanoate and sabinene were positively correlated with chilling injury. Overall, it can be concluded that these compounds can be used as biological markers related to CI based on the multivariate statistical analyses.