Prolonged on-tree maturation vs. cold storage of Hass avocado fruit: Changes in metabolites of bioactive interest at edible ripeness

When the recipient of the product is relatively distant from the production area, it is necessary to use cold storage and controlled humidity to transport the avocado fruits. One of the main advantages of local avocado consumption lies on the possibility of prolonging on-tree maturation; this could foreseeably modify the metabolic profile of the fruit which arrives to the consumer. In this work, the effect of prolonged on tree maturation (during different time intervals) on the final composition of avocado fruit (at edible ripeness) was evaluated and compared with the impact of the same periods after prolonged cold storage. The quantitative evolution of nine bioactive metabolites (7 phenolic compounds, pantothenic and abscisic acids) over 40 days (10-days intervals) was studied by using a solid-liquid extraction protocol and a LC-MS methodology. The results were discussed both considering the quantitative evolution of each individual compound and the sum of all of them.Universidad de Granada/CBU

Characterization of the Polar Profile of Bacon and Fuerte Avocado Fruits by Hydrophilic Interaction Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry: Distribution of Non-structural Carbohydrates, Quinic Acid, and Chlorogenic Acid between Seed, Mesocarp, and Exocarp at Different Ripening Stages

The Supporting Information is available free of charge at https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jafc.2c08855.Avocado fruit growth and development, unlike that of other fruits, is characterized by the accumulation of oil and C7 sugars (in most fruits, the carbohydrates that prevail are C6). There are five essential carbohydrates which constitute 98% of the total content of soluble sugars in this fruit; these are fructose, glucose, sucrose, D-mannoheptulose, and perseitol, which together with quinic acid and chlorogenic acid have been the analytes under study in this work. After applying an efficient extraction procedure, a novel methodology based on hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry was applied to determine the levels of these seven substances in tissues exocarp, seed, and mesocarp from avocado fruits of two different varieties scarcely studied, Bacon and Fuerte, at three different ripening stages. Quantitative characterization of the selected tissues was performed, and the inter-tissue distribution of metabolites was described. For both varieties, D-mannoheptulose was the major component in the mesocarp and exocarp, whereas perseitol was predominant in the seed, followed by sucrose and D-mannoheptulose. Sucrose was found to be more abundant in seed tissues, with much lower concentrations in avocado mesocarp and exocarp. Quinic acid showed a predominance in the exocarp, and chlorogenic acid was exclusively determined in exocarp samples.Universidad de Granada / CBUAMinistry of Science and Innovation (PID2021-128508OB-I00 and PID2019- 109566RB-I00FEDER/Junta de Andalucía-Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades, Proyecto P20_0026FEDER/Junta de Andalucía-Consejería de Economía y Conocimiento, Proyecto B-AGR-416-UGR18Spanish Government (FPU19/00700)UE-NextGenerationU