Volatile compounds from fruits of Butia capitata at different stages of maturity and storage

Abstract

The chemical composition of volatile substances from fruits of jelly palm (Butia capitata) was investigated at four stages of maturity and two storage conditions. These stages were characterized through the profile obtained by extraction of volatiles through headspace chromatography and analyzed by GC-MS. In mature fruits 25 compounds were extracted, but primarily consisted of ethyl hexanoate (65.9%), ethyl butanoate (14.5%) and methyl hexanoate (9.64%). The composition at different stages of maturity was subjected to analysis by Principal Components Analysis (PCA) which accumulated 68.05% of the total variance in the principal components 1 and 2, which enabled classification of samples by the stages of maturity, and was corroborated by HCA. The classification system was based on the presence of certain compounds as (E)-hex-2-enal, methyl hexanoate and pent-4-enyl butanoate to separate samples of immature and 25% mature. Samples with 50% mature epicarp are influenced by compounds pent-4-enyl acetate and camphene. The samples with 100% of maturation and with three days of storage were influenced by ethyl butanoate and ethyl hexanoate. The sample stored for six days was influenced by the main compounds: butyl hexanoate, ethyl (E)-oct-2-enoate, ethyl hex-3-enoate and ethyl decanoate.