Changes of Character-Impact Odorants in Processing Strawberry Cultivars during Maturation

Changes in the incidence of character-impact odorants were investigated in four processing strawberry cultivars, 'Hokowase', 'Marshall', 'Senga Sengana', and 'Totem', during fruit maturation. Fruits were hand-harvested from open fields at five developmental stages - light green, white, half red, full red, and dark red. The volatile compounds were extracted by Porapak Q column (PQ) extraction. Thirty-one character-impact odorants were determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The content of acids, lactones, esters, linalool, 2,5-dimethyl-4-hydroxy-2H-furan-3-one (mesifuran), and 2,5-dimethyl-4-methoxy-2H-furan-3-one (Furaneol) increased with increasing maturity, especially during the transition from the light green stage to white stage, whereas the concentration of each compound was considerably different amongst cultivars. On the other hand, the variation in the concentration of alcohols and aldehydes with a green aroma, e.g. cis-3-hexenal, trans-3-hexenol, cis-3-hexenol, cis-2-nonenal, trans-2-nonenal, octanol, and trans, cis-2,6-nonadienal, was not as great, except for trans-3-hexenol, which tended to increase during maturation. The apparent reduction in the perception of green aroma from ripened strawberry fruits compared to young fruits could be explained by a relative increase of fruity, sweet, and sour odorants rather than a decrease in green odorants during maturation.