Bioactive Compounds and Volatile Profile Dynamics During Fruit Growth of Several Plums Cultivars

Abstract

The therapeutic value of plums is provided by t he contained bioactive compounds, but in consumers choice an essential role is played by the product flavour in which volatile compounds are important contributors. The content in bioactive compounds, the antioxidant activity as well as the volatile profil e of three plum cultivars were determined during fruit development. In the analyzed samples, depending on cultivar, harvesting time and the position of fruit in the tree crown, the determined total phenolic content varied between 60.31 – 699.92 mg GAE 100 g - 1 , while the flavonoids and anthocyanins content ranged between 11.24 – 254.46 mg QE 100 g - 1 , and 0.09 – 1.65 m g CE 100 g - 1 , respectively. Using ITEX/GC - MS technique, there were 99 volatile compounds detected in the samples of which 93 were tentatively identif ied. The volatiles present in the plums cultivars included alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, esters, terpenoids, lactones and others. The most abundant class (in all plum cultivars and developmental phases) was that of aldehydes (49.40 – 87.01%), the main repres entatives being hexanal, benzaldehyde, nonanal, heptanal and 2 - hexenal, with hexanal having the largest relative peak areas . The identification and quantification of volatile compounds and knowing their accumulation dynamic throughout the ripening process may allow better valorising of fruits depending on cultivar and harvesting time. Keywords : Antioxidant capacity, Phenolic compounds, ITEX/GC - MS Plums, Volatiles.