Inhibition of α-farnesene biosynthesis and its oxidation in the peel tissue of “d'Anjou” pears by low-O2/elevated CO2 atmospheres

An insight into the role of fruit maturity at harvest on superficial scald development in ‘Beurré D’Anjou’ pear

“…Although these values have never been clearly defined (Gine Bordonaba et al, 2013), there are some studies that quantify this relationship in pears. Chen et al (1993) observed that in 'Beurré D'Anjou' pears grown in Hood River (USA), scald occurred when CTols content was greater than 2 nmol cm −2 . In fruit of the same variety grown in Alto Valle region (Argentina), a threshold value 20 nmol cm −2 CTols has also been defined (Calvo and Candan, unpublished data).…”

Pear Fruit Volatiles

“…Direct solvent extraction has been widely used to isolate fruit volatiles of various pear cultivars (Gasca 1969;Creveling and Jennings 1970;Strandjev 1974a,b;Quamme and Marriage 1977;Quamme 1984;Berger et al 1985a;Chen et al 1993;Avelar et al 1994;Beuerle and Schwab 1997a;Rizzolo 1998;Zoffoli et al 1998;Cigic and Zupancic-Kralj 1999;Lo Scalzo et al 2002). It has proven to be an effective extraction method yielding a large number of analytes, including highly water-soluble flavor constituents, which are typically poorly recovered by distillation and headspace analysis (Takeoka and Full 1997).…”

“…The use of HPLC in isolation of fruit volatiles is not useful for the total analysis of the complex mixture of pear volatiles, but has proven to be a ready tool to identify and quantify some important volatile compounds of pear aroma, such as decadienoates (Russell et al 1981;Quamme 1984), a-farnesene, and conjugated trienes (Zoffoli et al 1998). Indeed, these compounds are characterized by a relatively high degree of unsaturation (Crombie 1955), and thus can be spectrophotometrically detected and quantified by HPLC with an UV detector between 200 and 300 nm (Jennings and Creveling 1963;Heinz et al 1964;Creveling and Jennings 1970;Quamme and Marriage 1977;Chen et al 1990;Chen et al 1993). HPLC, in contrast to GC, prevents thermal generation of artifacts (Kubeczka 1981).…”

“…Some hydrocarbons, such as benzene, toluene, and xylene can be considered to be pollutants from anthropogenic activities (Kupiszewska and Pilling 1994), and should be viewed with caution as contamination compounds from the environment. Conjugated trienes, which are considered as oxidation products of the terpene afarnesene, have been isolated in pear fruits by some authors (Chen et al 1993;Chen and Varga 1997;Zoffoli et al 1998;Chervin et al 2000). Alpha-farnesene has been found to be present in high concentration in Asian pear peel (Shiota et al 1981) and in 'La France' pear fruits (Shiota 1990), and its (E) isomer has also been indicated as a characteristic compound of Pome fruits (Paillard 1990).…”

“…These include genetic traits, cultural practices, harvest maturity, and storage regime. There is an increasing interest in volatiles produced during postharvest, principally in relation to superficial scald or anaerobic respiratory metabolism (Ke et al 1990;Chen et al 1993;Lange 1997;Zoffoli et al 1998). Volatiles are of high importance in determining product characterization and overall quality of both fresh and processed pears.…”