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Volatile compounds associated to the loss of astringency in persimmon fruit revealed by untargeted GC–MS analysis

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Abstract

High resolution volatile profiling (67 compounds identified) of fruits from 12 persimmon cultivars was established and used to characterize the different astringency types of persimmon fruit before and after deastringency treatment. Analysis of the volatile profile of fruit enables us to differentiate between cultivars that at the moment of harvest produced non-astringent fruit (Pollination Constant Non Astringent—PCNA-type) from astringent ones (non-PCNA-type). Fruit failing to accumulate astringent compounds naturally (PCNA fruit) showed high levels of 3(2H)-benzofuranone, while this compound was not detected in any astringent type fruit (non-PCNA). In addition to this, PCNA cultivars also showed at harvest higher accumulation of benzeneacetaldehyde and lipid-derived aldehydes (hexanal, heptanal, octanal and decanal) than non-PCNA fruit. The application of postharvest deastringency treatment to all non-PCNA cultivars resulted on an important insolubilization of tannins. In general the CO2-treatment enhanced the levels of acetaldehyde, however those cultivars showing high levels of dihydrobenzofuran at harvest did not present an increment of acetaldehyde. In contrast, all non-PCNA cultivars exhibited an important accumulation of lipid-derived aldehydes due to CO2-treatment. Therefore, we propose that lipid-derived aldehydes (mainly decanal, octanal and heptanal) may be playing a role in the astringency loss. Our results suggest that 3(2H)-benzofuranone, benzeneacetaldehyde and lipid-derived aldehydes could be used as markers for both natural and artificial loss of astringency.

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Acknowledgments

This study has been supported by ‘Conselleria d’Agricultura of Valencian Community’ and ‘Guarantee of Origin Kaki Ribera del Xúquer’ (Valencia, Spain), the Spanish ‘Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia’ (Project INIA-RTA 2010-00080-00-00) and Feder program from the EU. Cristina Besada is contracted by the ‘Conselleria d’Educació of Valencian Community’. Gerardo Sanchez holds a fellowship from INTA (Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuária, Argentine). The authors thank Ph.D. Marisa Badenes for the supply of persimmon fruits. Metabolite profiling was conducted at the Metabolomics Lab of IBMCP.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas (IBMCP), Ingeniero Fausto Elio, s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain

    Cristina Besada, Gerardo Sanchez & Antonio Granell

  2. Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA), Carretera Moncada-Náquera, km 4,5, 46113, Valencia, Spain

    Alejandra Salvador

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  1. Cristina Besada
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Correspondence to Alejandra Salvador.

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Besada, C., Sanchez, G., Salvador, A. et al. Volatile compounds associated to the loss of astringency in persimmon fruit revealed by untargeted GC–MS analysis. Metabolomics 9, 157–172 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11306-012-0436-2

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