The Effect of Post-harvest Conditions in Narcissus sp. Cut Flowers Scent Profile

Abstract

Narcissus flowers are used as cut flowers and to obtain high quality essential oils for the perfume industry. As a winter crop in the Mediterranean area, it flowers at temperatures ranging between 10 and 15°C during the day and 3–10°C during the night. Here we tested the impact of different light and temperature conditions on scent quality during post-harvest. These two types of thermoperiod and photoperiod. We also used constant darkness and constant temperatures. We found that under conditions of 12:12 Light Dark and 15-5°C, Narcissus emitted monoterpenes and phenylpropanoids. Increasing the temperature to 20°-10°C in a 12:12 LD cycle caused the loss of cinnamyl acetate and emission of indole. Under constant dark, there was a loss of scent complexity. Constant temperatures of 20°C caused a decrease of scent complexity that was more dramatic at 5°C, when the total number of compounds emitted decreased from thirteen to six. Distance analysis confirmed that 20°C constant temperature causes the most divergent scent profile. We found a set of four volatiles, benzyl acetate, eucalyptol, linalool, and ocimene that display a robust production under differing environmental conditions, while others were consistently dependent on light or thermoperiod. Scent emission changed significantly during the day and between different light and temperature treatments. Under a light:dark cycle and 15-5°C the maximum was detected during the light phase but this peak shifted toward night under 20-10°C. Moreover, under constant darkness the peak occurred at midnight and under constant temperature, at the end of night. Using Machine Learning we found that indole was the volatile with a highest ranking of discrimination followed by D-limonene. Our results indicate that light and temperature regimes play a critical role in scent quality. The richest scent profile is obtained by keeping flowers at 15°-5°C thermoperiod and a 12:12 Light Dark photoperiod.

Floral Scents and Fruit Aromas: Functions, Compositions, Biosynthesis, and Regulation

“…Narcissus floral volatiles and their essential oils are used in the perfume industry ( Terry et al, 2021 ). Chinese daffodil flowers ( Narcissus tazetta ) contain acetic acid phenethyl ester, E-ocimene, acetic acid benzyl ester, neo-allo-ocimene, allo-ocimene, α-linalool, 1,8 cineole, benzenepropyl acetate, and 3-methyl-2-buten-1-ol acetate as the major VOCs ( Melliou et al, 2007 ; Song et al, 2007 ; Chen et al, 2013 ).…”

Transcriptome-Based WGCNA Analysis Reveals Regulated Metabolite Fluxes between Floral Color and Scent in Narcissus tazetta Flower

“…Carotenoids (lutein, zeaxanthin, and ß-carotene), flavonoids (rutin, naringenin), and chlorophyll (chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b) at first increased from C1 to C2 in coronas, then the flavonoids (rutin, naringenin) and chlorophyll were stably maintained at C2 to C3, but carotenoids (lutein, zeaxanthin, and ß-carotene) continued to increase at the C3 stage, then decreased at the C4 stage in coronas ( Figure 1 C). Referring to the scent profile of cut narcissus flowers [ 32 ], we detected floral fragrance components, and the results exhibited a difference between their fragrant component and emitting profile between tepals and coronas during flower development. The volatile organic components (VOCs) were not detectable at C1/T1 stage (data not shown).…”

“…In Narcissus , main floral pigment (carotenoids and flavonoids), and floral fragrance (benzenoid/phenylpropanoid) was provided [ 31 , 32 ]. A cultivated variety “Jinzhanyintai” of Narcissus tazetta var.…”

“…Sampling was performed during the winter of 2020 and 2021. The extraction and detection of VOCs was performed according to [ 32 ] with minor modification. Tepals and coronas were separated from flowers without any visual damage (from S2 to S4 stage) and grounded into fine powder in liquid nitrogen immediately.…”

3DeepM: An Ad Hoc Architecture Based on Deep Learning Methods for Multispectral Image Classification

“…All grape varieties used in the current study were grown in a commercial orchard (Cooperativa Las Cabezuelas), where seedless grapes and Narcissus are grown for export under ecological conditions [50]. Seedless grapes are of the commercial varieties Crimson Seedless, Autumn Royal, Itum4, Itum5 and Itum9.…”