VOLATILE PROFILE OF MANGABA FRUIT STORED UNDER MODIFIED ATMOSPHERE

Brazil has countless native species with aromatic profile to be explored, among which stands out the mangaba fruit (Hancornia speciosa, Apocynaceae family). Therefore, the objective of the present investigation was to evaluate the volatile profile of the mangaba fruit stored under different packaging. Mature green fruits were conditioned in three different packages: polyethylene terephthalate (PET) packaging with rigid snap-on cover of the same polymer; PET packaging manually covered with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) film with a thickness of 20 µm; and PET packaging covered manually with 60 µm thick PVC film. The fruit were stored for 20 days at 12±1°C and 90% RH, for which evaluations were conducted every 5 days to measure the volatile profile by solid phase microextraction technique (SPME), using Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry. The work was conducted in completely random design (CRD). The treatments were arranged in a 3×5 factorial scheme, with three repetitions, and each experimental unit was made up of three fruits placed in one package. Data of the volatile composition was submitted to Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The SPME technique identified a total of 35 compounds. The following classes of chemical compounds were found: alcohols (28.57%), aldehydes (25.71%), terpene hydrocarbons and their oxygenated derivatives (25.71%), ketones (2.85%), esters (5.71%) and other hydrocarbons (11.42%). The only compounds that were present over all storage period, in spite of packages, were dodecan-1-ol and trans-hex-2-enal. The PCA identified the formation of four groups of samples, which were separated by the similarity among them. The packaging affected the volatile profile of mangaba fruit differently over the storage period.