Roy, J.L., Shure, K.B., Acree, T.E. and Lavin, E.L. 1995.
Ananlysis of Flavor Compounds in Cell Cultures of Vitis Labruscana CV Concord Grapes. Bioflavour 95, Dijon, France
Volatile secondary metabolites present in fruit above microgram/liter concentration are frequently present at lower levels in cell cultures. For example, the odor active compounds that characterize grape aroma (Vitis labruscana cv. Concord), methyl anthranilate, o-aminoacetophenone, and 2,5-dimethyl-3(2H)-furanone, are not detected above their odor thresholds in cell suspension cultures. However, precursors of b-damascenone were found in grape cell cultures at concentrations high enough to yield suprathreshold levels of b-damascenone upon acid hydrolysis. This paper describes evidence for the presence of precursors of odor-active compounds in cell suspension cultures of Vitis labruscana cv. Concord in addition to those that yield b-damascenone. Cell suspension cultures of the grape species V. labruscana, initiated from fruit callus derived from immature fruit, were propagated in subculture. Gas chromatography-olfactometry (GCO) was used to detect the odor-active volatiles in the extracts of these cultures before and after thermally-induced acid hydrolysis. The odor potency of 16 compounds detected in the suspension cultures increased significantly following acid hydrolysis. Compounds with normal parafin retention indices a on methyl silicon column of 1131, 1145, 1337, as well as ethyl 2-methyl butanoate, ethyl butanaote, 3-methylthiopropanol, and b-damascenone showed the largest increases in odor activity after acid hydrolysis.