Strawberry is the most consumed berry fruit worldwide due to its unique aroma and high nutritive value. This fruit is also an important source of phenolic compounds. Changping strawberries are recognized as a national agricultural product of geographical indication (GI) due to their unique flavor. Widely accepted standards for identifying GI strawberries from non-GI strawberries are currently unavailable. This study compared the aroma and phenolic acid composition of GI and non-GI strawberries. Furthermore, the characteristic aroma and phenolic acid markers of GI strawberries were determined. A classification model based on the markers was established using Fisher discriminant analysis (FDA). In this study, six groups of strawberries with variety name of "Hongyan", including GI strawberries from Changping and non-GI strawberries from Changping, Miyun, Pinggu, Shunyi, and Tongzhou, were collected. A total of 147 volatile substances were discovered using gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The contents of a few compounds principally responsible for the distinctive aroma in GI strawberries were in the top three of the six groups, providing GI strawberries with a generally pleasant fragrance. OPLS-DA identified isoamyl butyrate and trans-2-octen-1-ol as characteristic markers. Enrichment analysis indicated that beta-oxidation of very long-chain fatty acids, mitochondrial beta-oxidation of very long-chain fatty acids, fatty acid biosynthesis, and butyrate metabolism played critical roles in volatile compound biosynthesis. The total phenolic content was 24.41-36.46 mg/kg of fresh weight. OPLS-DA results revealed that cinnamic acid could be used as a characteristic phenolic acid marker of GI strawberries. Based on the three characteristic markers, FDA was performed on the different groups, which were then divided. The separation of strawberry samples from different origins using the three characteristic markers was found to be feasible. These findings help effectively understand the aroma and phenolic acid composition of strawberries and contribute to the development of strawberries with a pleasant fragrance and health benefits.
Keywords: aroma; characteristic markers; geographical indication; phenolicacids; strawberry.