VOCs Analysis of Three Different Cultivars of Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus L.) Whole Dietary Fiber

Abstract

In this study, the trend of VOCs of dietary fiber samples, coming from three different watermelon cultivars Citrullus lanatus L. (variety Gavina®®, Crimson sweet, and Asahi myiako) was investigated. This foodstuff, obtained as a by-product of residual agri-food production, has gained increasing attention because of its many bioactive components and high dietary fiber content. The result is a fibrous material for specific applications in food manufacturing, such as corrector for some functional and technological properties. In this study, a method based on headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) was used to characterize the aromatic profiles of the dried raw materials. Therefore, the VOCs of the samples of the three cultivars were investigated. Experimental results have shown that watermelon fibers generate VOCs, which can be grouped into six common classes of analytes. The different distributions of the identified compounds made it possible to effectively differentiate the three cultivars studied based on their peculiar aroma profiles. In particular, Gavina®® fiber is distinguished by the high content of terpenes, Asahi myiako by the presence of aldehydes generated as fatty acid metabolites, and Crimson sweet by the higher content of acetyl esters.

Volatile Aroma Compounds of Gavina® Watermelon (Citrullus Lanatus L.) Dietary Fibers to Increase Food Sustainability

“…C9 aldehydes characterize the flavor and aroma of different species of Cucurbitaceae [3,6,26,[33][34][35] and have been previously reported in several studies on similar samples [5,29,30,33]. We identified 4-nonenal, nonanal, (Z,Z)-3,6-nonadienal, (Z)-2nonenal, (E,E)-2,6-nonadiena€(E)-2-nonenal, and 2,4-nonadienal.…”

“…Hexanal, 2-hexenal, 4-heptenal, 2,4-hexadienal, 2-heptenal, 2,4-heptadienal, and 2,4-decadienal can be generated by the oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids and, to a lesser extent, by autoxidation [1,3,6,37]. These molecules, already detected in some watermelon cultivars, are particularly abundant in foods rich in fatty acids such as avocado, fish oil, and olive oil [5,37].…”

“…The aroma of a food product is directly related to its acceptability by consumers, nutritional and qualitative characteristics, health, and safety [3]. The measurement and identification of VOCs, in the specific case of fruits, allow to highlight any differences between different cultivars of the same species [5]. These variations are linked to geographical origin, cultivation site, production methods, harvesting technologies, degree of ripeness, and aging [2,3,6].…”

“…Pursuing our previous works regarding the recovery of dietary fiber from agri-food waste [5,17,18], in this study, we obtained and examined the whole dietary fiber (WDF) from watermelon pomace. Pomace is the pulp residue remaining after the fruit has been crushed to extract its juice.…”

Exploring the Effect of Different Storage Conditions on the Aroma Profile of Bread by Using Arrow-SPME GC-MS and Chemometrics

“…Chemical characterisation of VOCs is generally carried out by means of headspace analysis protocols, which optimize VOCs sampling/extraction conditions, produce a signal typical of the investigated sample, identify the various chemical compounds, and eventually quantify the analytes using appropriate standards. Several methods have been developed to extract, concentrate, and sample food flavour patterns, such as essential oil extraction with solvents, collection of released volatile molecules by direct headspace collection, Solid-Phase Micro Extraction (SPME), and Head-Space Sorptive Extraction (HSSE) [6][7][8]. Most of these methods employ gas chromatography (GC) to separate the collected molecules and mass spectrometry (MS) to identify the chemical species.…”