DEVELOPMENT OF VOLATILE COMPOUNDS DURING FRUIT MATURATION - CHARACTERIZATION OF APRICOT AND PLUM X APRICOT HYBRIDS

Optimum fruit quality depends upon a number of factors, including frui t developmental stage at harvest. The volatile constituents present in apricot fruit and plumcot accession P251-002 during three different d evelopmental stages have been studied, as well as some physical charac teristics such as weight, firmness, degrees Brix, titratable acidity a nd flesh and skin colour. The volatile compounds behaved differently d uring the fruit maturation period, alcohols being the most important g roup, quantitatively, during the three developmental stages in apricot fruit. In plumcot, total volatiles obtained from fruit sample extract ions were very similar in each developmental stage; however, the aroma tic profile of constituents changed as fruit maturity progressed to a tree ripe stage. Important differences were found in the volatile cons tituents profile for both fruits; at the tree ripe stage, the concentr ation of lactones and terpenic alcohols, characteristic compounds of a pricot aroma, were much higher in apricot than plumcot, the latter mor e resembling a plum aromatic profile. Even with the important presence of lactones that gives a very aromatic apricot when tree ripe, the lo w firmness at this point does not allow any commercial use of the frui t.