FLAVOR COMPONENTS AND ASCORBIC ACID CONTENT IN NATIVE AND COMMERCIAL HYBRID TOMATOES (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

Abstract

Tomatoes are commercially important worldwide for the ways it is consumed and its nutritional value. Due to its demand, cultivars with improved agronomic attributes, resistance to mechanical damage and longer shelf life have been developed. In certain cases, this has been achieved in detriment of organoleptic or nutritional quality, which native populations maintain. For this study, out of a collection of 600 native populations 13 were selected for their suitable agronomic characteristics for greenhouse cultivation, adequate yield and fruit size. Our objective was characterizing their chemical attributes related to taste and assessing their ascorbic acid content and compared it to two commercial hybrids. Our hypothesis was that the ascorbic acid and citric acid content, pH and total soluble solids in the fruits confer significant differences to the flavor. The experimental design was completely randomized, with 15 treatments and four repetitions. The data analysis was multivariate. In four stages of fruit maturity, pH, ascorbic acid, citric acid and total soluble solids content were quantified. The flavor components and the ascorbic acid content allowed three groups identification, one commercial hybrid with low ascorbic acid content, another with three native samples and the “Daniela” hybrid, classified as very sweet; and the one that included the “Sun7705” hybrid and five native samples classified as sweet, three native samples with neutral flavor and two tasteless. This confirms that native populations have potential to produce fruit for fresh or processed consumption and gourmet dishes.