Study of the volatile composition of tomato during storage by a combination sampling method coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

Abstract

AbstractBACKGROUND: The volatile compositions of common tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum var. commune) and cherry tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum var. cerasiforme) during storage were studied by a combination sampling method, including headspace solid phase microextraction (HSSPME), simultaneous distillation extraction (SDE) and steam distillation (SD), coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) detection.RESULTS: Twenty‐one and 14 volatile compounds of fresh and stale common tomatoes and 27 and 17 volatile compounds of fresh and stale cherry tomatoes were identified with various degrees of certainty. The main identified volatile compounds of common and cherry tomatoes were C6 alcohols and aldehydes. During storage, saturated hexanal increased gradually whereas unsaturated (E)‐2‐hexenal decreased. Different volatile compositional characteristics at the fresh and stale storage phases obtained by HSSPME were specified by principal component analysis (PCA). Different metabolic pathways and enzyme catalyses resulted in the various volatile compositional characteristics during tomato storage. Five typical volatile compounds contributing greatly to the difference in volatile compositional characteristics of common and cherry tomatoes at the fresh and stale storage phases were distilled by a common model strategy. These compounds are potential biomarkers for tomato degradation, but further study is needed.CONCLUSION: The preliminary results suggest that the combination of HSSPME and conventional sampling methods would yield more representative information on changes in tomato volatile composition during storage. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry