2017 ASHS Annual Conference

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is one of the most consumed horticultural crops in the world and important as a good source of essential nutrients. Recent work has demonstrated the potential role of volatile compounds in promoting human health and in tomato flavor. Carotenoid-derived aroma volatiles such as ß-damacenone (sweet, apple) and geranyl acetone (sweet, fruity) have been reported to possess potential chemopreventive or antimicrobial properties. Until now, only a few quality parameters have been investigated in relation to production system (high tunnel v/s open-field) and the influence of production systems on volatile compounds has not been studied. In the present study, optimized headspace solid phase micro extraction (HS-SPME) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was conducted to determine the effect of production system on the volatile compounds. Four tomato varieties grown in high tunnels or in open fields in Amarillo, Texas, were harvested to determine the effect of production system on the levels of volatile compounds. HS-SPME was optimized for various parameters for accurate quantification of volatiles using an internal standard. Forty-six volatile compounds were identified from four varieties and expressed as 2-octanone equivalents. The levels of ß-damacenone of all four varieties grown in the high-tunnel system were 2.6 times higher than those grown in the open-field system. Meanwhile, the levels of geranyl acetone and farnesyl acetone in all four varieties of tomato grown in open-field conditions were approximately two times greater than the high-tunnel tomatoes. Multivariate analysis and partial least squares-discriminant analysis indicated that ß-damacenone and geranyl acetone were potential candidate markers related to production system. To the best our knowledge, this is the first comparative study of high-tunnel and open-field tomato volatiles.