PHENOLIC AND AROMATIC CHARACTERIZATION OF FRESH AND DRIED FIGS OF THE "DOTTATO" ITALIAN CULTIVAR IN COMPARISON TO TURKISH AND GREEK FIGS VARIETIES

Cilento (Southern Italy) white figs that belong to cultivar Dottato are used for production of Protected Denomination of Origin Cilento white figs, which have important economical significance in the production area. This paper reports for the first time the volatile composition of this typical Italian fig, in comparison to Turkish dried figs of the cultivar Smirne, and Greek dried figs of the cultivars Evia and Kalamata. 73 volatile compounds were identified and semi-quantified by SPME-GC/MS. The most represented chemical classes were alcohols, esters, aldehydes, ketones, terpenes and furans. Ethanol, isopentyl alcohol, isopentyl alcohol acetate, ethyl acetate, 3-mehtylbutanal, hexanal and benzaldehyde were the most abundant compounds. A clear distinction was obtained by applying PCA on volatile dataset among figs from different origins and some marked differences were found in the distribution of volatile compounds by chemical classes. The thermal treatment applied to sun-dried Cilento figs caused significant changes in figs aroma profile. Fig pollination could be a significant factor in determining the aroma composition of fruits. PDO Cilento figs resulted clearly distinguishable from other dried figs. Their aromatic pattern seems to be strongly influenced by the thermal treatment during production. Dried Turkish and Greek figs cultivar Kalamata showed similar volatile profile. Fresh and dried figs are important components of the Mediterranean diet. In this paper we report the characterization of the phenolic compounds in 19 fig samples: 9 fresh figs belonging to the cultivar †œDottato†� from Cilento (Italy), 10 dried fig samples from Cilento (2), Turkey (6), and Greece (2). The following phenolic compounds were identified and quantified by HPLC/UV-DAD: chlorogenic acid, protocatechuic acid, vanillic acid, luteolin-3,7-di-O-glucoside, luteolin 7-glucoside, apigenin-7-0-rutinoside, rutin, quercetin-3-glucoside and cyaniding-3-0-rutinoside. To our knowledge protocatechuic acid and vanillic acid are for the first time reported for figs. A discriminative analysis between the peel and pulp of the samples was carried out. The first crop (†œbreba†�) and the second one (full crop) from Cilento figs were considered, as well as the effect of fig pollination. The majority of the phenolic compounds were predominant in the fig peel. Significant quantitative differences were found among fresh figs, whereas some qualitative differences were obtained between fresh and dried figs from the same origin in cultivar Dottato, and among dried figs from different origins. Breba crop resulted richer in phenols compared to figs of the second crop. Considering the dried figs, the Turkish ones had the highest concentration in phenolics.