Aroma, which plays an essential role in food perception and acceptability, depends on various mixture of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Meanwhile, as a field of metabolomics, VOC analysis is highly important for aroma improvement and discrimination purposes. In this work, VOCs in pear fruits were determined via headspace solid-phase micro-extraction (HS-SPME) combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to study variations among different cultivars and storage stages. In 12 cultivars of pear fruits, a total of 121 VOCs were quantified, including 40 esters, 32 alcohols, 16 aldehydes, 13 alkenes, 11 ketones, 4 acids, and 5 other compounds. The types and amounts of VOCs in different cultivars varied dramatically, which were in the range of 13-71 and 3.63-55.65 mg/kg FW (fresh weight), respectively. The Dr. Guyot cultivar showed the highest level of VOCs, both in type and amount. After 21 days storage at 4 °C, total concentration of VOCs increased from initial levels of 50.76 to 101.33 mg/kg FW. Storage at 20 °C made a larger contribution to production for VOCs than that at 4 °C, resulting in the maximum content of VOCs (117.96 mg/kg FW) in fruit after 14 days storage at 4 °C plus 7 days at 20 °C. During storage, the content of esters showed a gradual increase, while the content of alcohols and aldehydes decreased. Based on the results presented, related alcohols were recognized as the intermediates of conversion from aldehydes to esters.
Keywords: GC-MS; HS-SPME; cultivar; pear; storage; volatile organic compounds.