ARTICLE IN PRESS

LWT 40 (2007) 1578–1586

www.elsevier.com/locate/lwt

Aroma of dehydrated pear products

Draženka Komes, Tomislav Lovrić, Karin Kovačević Ganić
Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb, Pierottijeva 6, p. p. 625, HR-10001 Zagreb, Croatia
Received 5 July 2006; received in revised form 12 December 2006; accepted 21 December 2006

Abstract

Pear purees and cubes were dehydrated with sugars (sucrose and trehalose) addition. Freeze drying and foam-mat drying were used.
Manual solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with gas chromatography (GC–flame ionization detector (FID) and GC–MS) was
applied to determine the changes in retention of aroma compounds in dehydrated pear purees and cubes. The best retention of aroma
compounds in dehydrated pear purees was noticed in the case when freeze drying and trehalose addition were combined. In dehydrated
pear cubes, previously dipped in trehalose solution, the highest aroma retention was also determined. This study showed possible
application of trehalose as potentially beneficial food ingredient, with the aim to improve the quality of dehydrated fruit products,
especially their aroma, and to produce superior dried fruit products or ingredients, which are widely used in food formulation.
r 2007 Swiss Society of Food Science and Technology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Aroma retention; Fruit; Pear; SPME; Trehalose; Volatiles

1. Introduction In order to explain the retention of homogeneously

Recently, much attention has been paid to the quality
feature, especially aroma, of dehydrated products (Tsami
& Katsioti, 2000). Dehydrated fruit pieces and purees are
widely used as ingredients for many food products, such as
fruit ice cream, yoghurt, cereal, bakery goods and others in
food formulation. Because of increased consumers’ de-
mand for attractive colour and flavour or specific texture,
the retaining of these food attributes is very important
objective of any processing methods (Moreno, Bugueno,
Velasco, Petzold, & Tabilo-Munizaga, 2004). Dehydration
is one of the preservation techniques for foods and food
materials, but like many other evaporative concentration
processes it is often linked with reduced product quality
resulting from large losses of aroma compounds. In regard
to the low processing temperatures, applied in freeze
drying, thermal degradation reactions are excluded and
high aroma retention is attainable in a porous product
with excellent rehydration properties (Beaudry, Raghavan,
Ratti, & Rennie, 2004; Coumans, Kerkhof, & Bruin, 1994;
Sabarez, Price, & Korth, 2000).
Corresponding author. Tel.: +385 1 4816 252; fax: +385 1 4826 251.
E-mail address: dkomes@pbf.hr (D. Komes).
dissolved volatile aroma components during drying of
liquid food materials, the concept of selective diffusion and
the microregion were proposed.
The selective diffusion concept is built on the observed
fact that the diffusion coefficient of water in concentrated
solutions behaves quite different from that of other
substances such as aroma components. Both diffusion
coefficients are strongly dependent on concentration but
the decrease with increasing solids content of the aroma
components diffusion coefficient is substantially stronger
than that of water. This behaviour is fairly general and
not very dependent on different molecular size: even the
diffusion coefficient of oxygen shows this behaviour. The
microregion concept of Flink and Karel basically assumes
that during freezing and subsequent drying ‘‘microregions’’
are formed inside the liquid food in which aroma molecules
are trapped (Bruin, 2000).
Since positive influence of sucrose and some other sugars
on aroma retention are also already known (Lovrić &
Pozderović, 1986; Lovrić, Piližota & Abramović, 1983),
particular attention has been paid to the positive protective
aspects of trehalose, which is currently being considered
as a potentially beneficial food additive (Macdonald &
Johari, 2000).

0023-6438/$30.00 r 2007 Swiss Society of Food Science and Technology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.lwt.2006.12.011
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
D. Komes et al. / LWT 40 (2007) 1578–1586
Trehalose is a non-reducing, bland, non-toxic, dietary
disaccharide, which does not change significantly the
flavour of food to which it is added. It is not rare but is
rather commonly found in nature including in mushrooms,
honey and baker’s yeasts, some of which are known to
contain almost 20% of trehalose on a dry solid basis and
are usually eaten (Colaco & Roser, 1994; Ekdawi-Sever,
Conrad, & de Pablo, 2001). When sucrose and its
solutions were compared with trehalose, the former
demonstrated higher water diffusion coefficients, lower
Tg, lower densities and higher intramolecular hydrogen
bonding. Also, trehalose appears to exhibit a higher
hydration capacity than sucrose. These characteristics
play an important role in preservation process (Colaco &
Roser, 1994). Glass-softening temperature, Tg, of trehalose
is the highest among sugars and its value decreases on
hydration, or increases on dehydration, as sensitively,
as those of maltose, sucrose and glucose (Macdonald &
Johari, 2000).
Trehalose has also been introduced commercially to the
US as a food ingredient by Cargill Health & Food
Technologies and also recognized by The Food and Drug
Administration as GRAS.
The object of the present study was to investigate the
influence of the addition of different sugars, especially
trehalose, on the aroma retention in dehydrated samples of
‘‘Packham’s Triumph’’ pears. Besides apples, pears (Pyrus
communis L.) belong to the most important fruit crops of
Rosaceae plants grown in Croatia. Complete information
involving aroma compounds associated with pear fruit is
relatively limited (Lopez, Miro, & Graell, 2001; Suwanagul
& Richardson, 1998) compared to many other fruits.
About 70 aroma compounds were identified in ‘‘Packham’s
Triumph’’ pears (Chervin, Speirs, Loveys, & Patterson,
2000; Suwanagul & Richardson, 1998). The volatile profiles
of this variety of pears are characterized by volatile
compounds like esters, alcohols, hydrocarbons, aldehydes
and ketones. Esters comprise 60–98% of total volatiles
among the varieties. Hexyl acetate was observed to be
present as a major ester of pear but strong fruity note of
pears is a result of the presence of butyl acetate and ethyl
butanoate (Berger, 1991). The aromatic ester, 2-pheny-
lethyl acetate, was noticed to contribute a sweet, rose-,
honey-like aroma of pear. It was reported to be a flavour
constituent of various other fruits such as apple, plum,
mango, strawberry and apricot (Berger, 1991; Komes,
Lovrić, Kovačević Ganić, Gajdoš Kljusurić, & Banović,
2005). Straight-chain alcohols with 2–8 carbons are present
as the second largest group in the profile. Several aldehydes
and ketones, as well as other aroma compounds, are also
found in some varieties but are present in very small
amounts.
Headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME), as a
solventless sample preparation technique (Vas, Kõteleky,
Farkas, Dobo, & Vekey, 1998; Zhang & Pawliszyn, 1993),
in combination with gas chromatography (GC–flame
ionization detector (FID) and GC–MS), was applied to
1579
determine the changes in retention of fruit volatiles in
dehydrated pear products.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Sample preparation
The present study was carried out with 10 samples,
including pear cubes and pear purees (10% solids). Pears
(P. communis L. var. ‘‘Packham’s Triumph’’) were pur-
chased from a local market. Preparation of pear cubes
consisted of hand peeling and cutting the pears into
uniform cubes of 5 mm, followed by dipping in sugar
solution with added ascorbic acid (1%) as inhibitor of
surface browning. According to Luh, Kean, and Woodroof
(1986), two samples of pear cubes were immersed in
251 Brix sugar (sucrose—sample no. 9 or trehalose—
sample no. 10) solution at room temperature and held
with constant agitation for 1 h. After draining on mash
trays to eliminate excess moisture, fruit cubes were
dehydrated in a cabinet drier. Besides the pear cubes
(samples no. 8, 9 and 10), the second group of samples was
pear purees, which were dehydrated by using foam-mat
drying (samples no. 2, 3 and 4) and freeze drying (samples
no. 5, 6 and 7). In order to compare the influence of
different sugars on flavour retention, pear purees were also
prepared with and without the addition of sugars
(trehalose, sucrose), as previously described for cubes.
Preliminary experiments were carried out in order to
evaluate the content of added sugars as well as optimal
process conditions required to achieve a significant aroma
retention of the product. The amount of added sugar
(trehalose or sucrose) in freeze-dried purees was 8% (wet
basis). Sugar addition to foam-mat dried products was
lower (4%) because of difficulties in the foaming step,
where 0.02% Hamulsion CNF (Hahn, Lubeck) and 2%
carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt as thickening agents
were also used. Foam-mat drying of purees and dehydra-
tion of cubes were performed in a cabinet drier (adapted
for foam-mat drying) in triplicate for each sample. For
pear cubes the following conditions were applied: 100 1C
kept for 3 min, 80 1C kept for 3 min, 70 1C kept for 3 min
and 60 1C for 60 min. Dehydrated pear cubes reached
approximately 7.7% of moisture content. The moisture
loss was monitored by periodically weighing the tray.
Purees were foam-mat dried to approximately 7.3%
moisture content. Temperature was programmed as
follows: 100 1C kept for 4 min, 80 1C kept for 3.5 min, then
decreased to 65 1C and maintained for 45 min.
Freeze drying was performed in freeze drier GAMMA
2-20 (Martin Christ, GmbH, Osterode am Harz, Germany)
in triplicate for each sample. The freeze drier consisted of a
circular chamber with nine steel trays to hold the samples.
Samples were dried until they reached 2% of moisture
content. It required a drying time of the order of 27 h. The
following conditions were applied: the freezing temperature
was 40 1C, the temperature of sublimation was from 20
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
1580 D. Komes et al. / LWT 40 (2007) 1578–1586
to 20 1C under a vacuum of 1.030 mbar and the tempera-
ture of isothermal desorption was from 20 to 30 1C under a
vacuum of 0.001 mbar.
2.2. Rehydration ratio
The rehydration ratio (RO) is the ratio of the mass of
the rehydrated sample to the mass of the dehydrated
sample (McMinn & Magee, 1997). In this work, RO was
determined by placing 5 g of dehydrated pear cubes in
70 mL of distilled boiling water for 5 min. The sample was
then transferred to a 7.5-cm Buchner funnel covered with
Whatman no. 1 filter paper, filtered under slight vacuum
and then weighed. RO was calculated from the ratio of the
drained weight of rehydrated pear cubes to the initial
weight of the dehydrated sample.
2.3. Headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME)
The used SPME device was a Sulpeco (Bellefonte, PA)
manual SPME holder 57330-U. Fused silica fibre coated
with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with 100 mm film
thicknesses (Sulpeco) was used for extraction and concen-
tration of volatile compounds. The fibre was precondi-
tioned at 250oC for 1 h in the inlet of the GC prior to
sampling as instructed by the manufacturer. The rehydra-
tion of samples (20 mL) was followed by the addition of
internal standard (IS), 3-nonanone (0.5 ppm v/v) and 4 g of
NaCl p.a., which were also added to the original, not dried
puree. Then, samples were capped in 50-mL glass vials,
warmed to 50 1C in water bath and gently mixed. Samples
were equilibrated for 10 min prior to insertion of the fibre.
The SPME fibre was exposed to the sample headspace at
50 1C for 30 min and immediately transferred to the GC
injection port at 200 1C for 3 min in splitless mode. Blank
runs were performed regularly prior to sample analysis to
ensure the removal of impurities.
2.4. Chromatography
All samples were analysed with a Varian 3300 gas
chromatograph equipped with an FID. Compounds were
separated on a DB 624 column (30 m  0.32 mm i.d.,
1.8 mm film thickness; J&W Scientific, Folsom, CA).
Nitrogen was used as a carrier gas at the flow rate of
1 mL/min. A split/splitless injector was used (ratio 1:5) and
maintained at 200 1C. The detector was kept at 250 1C.
Temperature programme was as follows: 3 min at 40 1C,
from 40 to 190 1C at 5 1C/min and 10 min at 190 1C.
The same conditions were applied for the GC–MS
analysis on a Hewlett-Packard 5890 gas chromatograph
with a 5970 series mass selective detector. The mass
spectrometer was operated in electron impact mode
(70 eV) and the masses were scanned over the range of
30–250m/z. Carrier gas was helium. Compounds were
identified using the nbs75k library of mass spectra and by
comparison with the mass spectrum of authentic refer-
ences.
All analyses were carried out in triplicate for each
sample. Data presented are means of peak area ratio7
standard deviation or the percentage. The peak area ratio
was calculated by the dividing the peak area of individual
compounds by the peak area of an IS (3-nonanone). The
percentage refers to the retention of total aroma in
dehydrated pear samples in relation to the data obtained
for total aroma in the pears before drying.
2.5. Chemicals
The standards of aroma compounds and trehalose were
purchased from Merck (Darmstadt, Germany). Sucrose
was obtained from Kemika (Zagreb, Croatia), Hamulsion
CNF was from Hahn (Lubeck, Germany) and carbox-
ymethylcellulose sodium from Kristall-Chemie (Wiener
Neudorf, Austria).
2.6. Statistics
In order to determine the influence of the addition of
sugars as well as the dehydration process, on the aroma
retention in dehydrated pear samples, ANOVA and
Duncan’s multiple range test (Montgomery, 2000), the
similarity coefficient (Datta & Nakai, 1992) and multi-
variate analysis (Esbensen, 2000) were applied.
The peak area ratio of the identified aroma compounds
of pears as a numerical value was used.
The value of similarity coefficient ranges from 0 to 1
with 1 meaning dehydrated pear samples are completely
identical to pears before drying and 0 meaning that there is
no similarity. The computer program Mathematica 5.0
(Wolfram Research, USA) was employed to determine
this coefficient. Principal component analysis (PCA) was
performed with the Statistica 6.0 (StatSoft, Inc., Tulsa,
OK, USA).
3. Results and discussion
In order to evaluate the influence of the addition of
trehalose on the improvement of quality of dehydrated
fruit products, this study was based on the differences in
retention of aroma compounds determined in dehydrated
pear samples with the addition of sugars compared to pears
before dehydration.
The retention of total aroma in dehydrated pear purees
and cubes in comparison with pears before drying (100%)
is shown in Table 1.
Among the samples of the dehydrated pear cubes, the
best total aroma retention (46%) was obtained in the
sample previously dipped in trehalose solution, followed by
pear cubes dipped in sucrose solution with 38% of aroma
retention and the lowest retention was determined in pear
cubes without previous dipping in sugar solution (31%).
Besides this higher retention of total aroma, the highest RO
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
D. Komes et al. / LWT 40 (2007) 1578–1586
Table 1
Total aroma retention (%) in dehydrated pear samples in comparison with
pears before drying (100%)
Without sugar With sucrose With trehalose
addition addition addition
Foam-mat 31 29 38
dried puree
Freeze-dried 62 66 92
puree
Dried cubes 31 38 46
of 3.8% at 5 min was noticed in the sample of pear cubes
dehydrated after dipping in the trehalose solution. The RO
of the other dehydrated samples previously dipped in
sucrose solution and without previous dipping in the sugar
solution were 3.4% and 2.9%, respectively. The higher RO
indicates that dehydrated pear cubes have fine porous
structure, which contributes to their better reconstitution
keeping compartmental properties of these products.
A short-time reconstitution capacity may be advantageous
for dried pear cubes when they are used for breakfast
cereals, since they are consumed with milk within minutes
of mixing (Beaudry et al., 2004; Feng & Tang, 1999). As
can be seen in Table 1, the retention of total aroma in
dehydrated pear purees was in the range from 29% in
foam-mat dried pear puree with sucrose addition to 92%
in freeze-dried puree with trehalose addition. The retention
of fruit volatiles in dehydrated pear purees varied in
relation to the dehydration process and the kind of sugar
added. As could be expected, the retention of flavour
compounds in freeze-dried puree with the addition of sugar
was the best, whether compared to the samples without
sugar addition or to foam-mat dried samples (Bruin, 2000;
Erba, Forni, Colonello, & Giangiacomo, 1994). The least
loss of total aroma (8%), as well as of individual fruit
volatiles, was obtained in the case when freeze drying and
trehalose addition were combined (Tables 1 and 3). This
means that the addition of sugar into the pear puree prior
to dehydration as well as process pressure prevented loss of
a part of fruit volatiles and increased the retention
of its characteristic aroma in dehydrated products, which
is in agreement with the results obtained in previous
research (Komes, Lovrić, Kovačević Ganić, & Gracin,
2003; Lovrić & Pozderović, 1986). Nineteen compounds
were identified from the headspace sample of ripened
‘‘Packham’s Triumph’’ pears.
Compounds were divided into groups of esters and
alcohols, carbonyls and terpenes. The results are shown as
the peak area ratio of aroma compounds with their
corresponding relative standard deviation. The peak area
ratio was calculated by dividing the peak area of individual
compounds by the peak area of an IS, 3-nonanone.
‘‘Packham’s Triumph’’ pears are known to have very
similar flavour to Bartlett pears, which are the most
aromatic and favourite pears. As can be seen, most of the
identified compounds of ‘‘Packham’s Triumph’’ pears were
1581
esters and alcohols. According to literature data, hexyl
acetate and butyl acetate were the two major esters, which
accounted for more than 80% of the profile (Chervin et al.,
2000; Suwanagul & Richardson, 1998). In agreement with
the previous result (Suwanagul & Richardson, 1998), when
compared to the amount of butyl acetate, the amount of
hexyl acetate was on an average twice as high in pears
before dehydration. The retention of the aromatic ester,
2-phenylethyl acetate with its flowery and sweet-like
aroma, was also detected. Besides typical previously
reported esters, methyl and ethyl butanoate, propyl
acetate, n-amyl acetate, butyl butanoate, ethyl hexanoate,
ethyl octanoate and ethyl decanoate were determined. In
foam-mat dried pear puree without sugar addition, all
esters, except butyl butanoate, were retained in the average
percentage of 33%. The addition of sucrose contributed to
their preservation of 37% and the addition of trehalose
resulted in their retention of 32%. From the results
presented in Table 2, it is evident that neither the addition
of sucrose nor the addition of trehalose in combination
with foam-mat drying had any influence on retention of
propyl acetate, whereas methyl butanoate was retained in
puree with sucrose addition in the percentage of 15% and
of 25% in puree with trehalose addition. Very small
amount of butyl and hexyl acetate was determined in foam-
mat dried pear purees, whereas their retention as high as
90% in freeze-dried purees was determined. In freeze-dried
pear puree with trehalose addition the retention of most
esters was almost 90% in comparison with pears before
dehydration, except volatile esters such as ethyl butanoate,
methyl butanoate and propyl acetate, which were retained
in smaller percentage (Table 3). In dehydrated pear cubes,
the highest percentage of retention among esters was
shown by ethyl hexanoate, butyl butanoate, ethyl octano-
ate and ethyl decanoate (Table 4). In the case of pear cubes
dipped in trehalose solution, more than 50% of these esters
were determined. The decrease of the content of esters, as
well as of other aroma compounds, was related to the
decrease in quality of the product (Bruin, 2000). In this
case, the addition of sugars, especially trehalose, has an
important role. The obtained results of the statistical
analysis (ANOVA and Duncan’s test) showed that in
comparison with the pears before dehydration, all dehy-
drated samples showed significant differences (Po0.05)
related to the retention of total aroma. It is interesting that
by freeze drying only the retention of propyl acetate was
not statistically different among the purees with the
addition of different sugars (Table 3). Ester synthesis in
pears was reported to be derived from b-oxidation and
lipoxygenase-catalyzed oxidation of fatty acids. The
varieties, which contained high amounts of unsaturated
fatty acids or those having enzyme systems favouring this
type, are likely to produce esters with a high degree of
unsaturation and yield a large number of esters, more than
those varieties that contained less unsaturated fatty
acids or contained mainly saturated fatty acids. Alcohols
constitute the second largest group of aroma compounds in
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1582 D. Komes et al. / LWT 40 (2007) 1578–1586

Table 2
Peak area ratio in foam-mat dried pear purees

No. Compounds Pear puree before drying Puree without sugar Puree with sucrose Puree with trehalose
(1) addition (2) addition (3) addition (4)
Peak area ratio7RSD Peak area ratio7RSD Peak area ratio7RSD Peak area ratio7RSD
(%) (%) (%) (%)

1 Methyl butanoate 0.0475.9 — 0.0171.9 0.0179.7

2 Propyl acetate 0.02711.9 0.0174.2 — —
3 Ethyl butanoate 0.1075.8 0.00577.4 0.0777.0 0.0774.0
4 Hexanal 0.0476.6 0.0273.9 0.00373.8 0.0175.5
5 Butyl acetate 0.9277.5 0.0573.6 0.0672.3 0.0574.0
6 2-hexenal 0.0374.3 0.0276.5 0.0174.8 0.00374.2
7 1-hexanol 0.0874.9 0.00375.91 0.003710.81 0.0172.7
8 n-amyl acetate 0.0679.5 0.0277.2 0.00474.6a 0.00274.8a
9 Butyl butanoate 0.0377.3 0.02715.1 0.0574.6 0.0573.2
10 Ethyl hexanoate 0.0176.7 0.0178.72 0.0178.72 0.0178.3
11 Hexyl acetate 2.2472.5 0.0172.63 0.0375.43,b 0.0272.9b
12 1-octanol 0.0174.8 — 0.00277.8 —
13 Linalool 0.0273.8 0.005711.4 0.0175.6 0.0176.4
14 2-phenylethanol 0.0273.8 0.00474.84 0.00475.94 0.0173.4
15 Ethyl octanoate 0.0175.3 0.0176.3 0.0173.9c 0.0176.1c
16 a-terpineol 0.0275.0 0.0175.3 0.0176.5 0.0174.0
17 Citronellol 0.0273.2 0.00375.7 0.0174.6 0.00371.0
18 2-phenylethyl acetate 0.0374.6 0.0173.0 0.0273.9 0.00373.0
19 Ethyl decanoate 0.0273.8 0.0177.35 0.0173.55,d 0.0178.0d

There is no statistically difference (Duncan’s test, Po0.05) in retention of aroma compounds between the purees with sucrose and trehalose addition
denoted by the same letter a,b,c,d and between the purees without addition and with sucrose addition denoted by numbers 1,2,3,4,5, RSD—relative standard
deviation.

Table 3
Peak area ratio in freeze-dried pear purees

No. Compounds Pear puree before drying Puree without sugar Puree with sucrose Puree with trehalose
(1) addition (5) addition (6) addition (7)
Peak area ratio7RSD Peak area ratio7RSD Peak area ratio7RSD Peak area ratio7RSD
(%) (%) (%) (%)

1 Methyl butanoate 0.0475.9 0.0174.9 0.0172.9 0.0174.2

2 Propyl acetate 0.02711.9 0.0173.6 0.00572.0a 0.0172.3a
3 Ethyl butanoate 0.1075.8 0.0277.5 0.0376.4 0.0477.3
4 Hexanal 0.0476.6 0.00373.9 0.0174.7 0.0274.5
5 Butyl acetate 0.9277.5 0.5172.21 0.5172.21 0.8674.4
6 2-hexenal 0.0374.3 0.0272.52 0.0172.02 0.0274.8
7 1-hexanol 0.0874.9 0.0171.5 0.0174.4 0.0373.1
8 n-amyl acetate 0.0679.5 0.0473.63 0.0472.33 0.0576.2
9 Butyl butanoate 0.0377.3 0.0172.8 0.0276.6 0.0276.7
10 Ethyl hexanoate 0.0176.7 0.00473.6 0.0171.2 0.0177.7
11 Hexyl acetate 2.2472.5 1.1578.4 1.5779.8 1.9674.9
12 1-octanol 0.0174.8 0.00176.3 0.00273.7 0.00371.8
13 Linalool 0.0273.8 0.0171.9 0.0172.0 0.0272.5
14 2-phenylethanol 0.0273.8 0.0173.7 0.0177.3 0.0173.3
15 Ethyl octanoate 0.0175.3 0.00475.9 0.00574.0 0.0179.1
16 a-terpineol 0.0275.0 0.0172.2 0.0172.6 0.0173.2
17 Citronellol 0.0273.2 0.0173.3 0.0175.1 0.0175.2
18 2-phenylethyl acetate 0.0374.55 0.0177.53 0.0375.9 0.0374.4
19 Ethyl decanoate 0.0273.77 0.0173.40 0.0272.5 0.0275.3

There is no statistically difference (Duncan’s test, Po0.05) in retention of aroma compounds between the purees with sucrose and trehalose addition
denoted by the same letter a and between the purees without addition and with sucrose addition denoted by numbers 1,2,3, RSD—relative standard
deviation.

pear profiles. They account for 2–14% of total aroma were identified. 1-octanol demonstrated the highest reten-
compounds (Suwanagul & Richardson, 1998). From the tion in freeze-dried purees, especially in the puree with
class of alcohols, 1-hexanol, 1-octanol and 2-phenylethanol trehalose addition (84%). An interesting feature of the
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
D. Komes et al. / LWT 40 (2007) 1578–1586 1583

Table 4
Peak area ratio in dehydrated pear cubes

No. Compounds Pear puree before drying Cubes without sugar Cubes with sucrose Cubes with trehalose
(1) addition (8) addition (9) addition (10)
Peak area ratio7RSD Peak area ratio7RSD Peak area ratio7RSD Peak area ratio7RSD
(%) (%) (%) (%)

1 Methyl butanoate 0.0475.9 0.00277.2 0.00674.0a 0.0175.4a

2 Propyl acetate 0.02711.9 0.00178.1 0.00577.5 0.00372.9
3 Ethyl butanoate 0.1075.8 0.0175.5 0.02710.5 0.0274.4
4 Hexanal 0.0476.6 0.00475.2 0.00277.1 0.00473.2
5 Butyl acetate 0.9277.5 0.0376.3 0.0174.1 0.0772.6
6 2-hexenal 0.0374.3 0.00277.4 0.00473.3 0.0175.9
7 1-hexanol 0.0874.9 0.00477.6 0.0176.7 0.0172.7
8 n-amyl acetate 0.0679.5 0.00475.31 0.0177.81,b 0.0176.5b
9 Butyl butanoate 0.0377.3 0.0174.1 0.0179.3 0.0271.8
10 Ethyl hexanoate 0.0176.7 0.00775.82 0.0173.72,c 0.0173.1c
11 Hexyl acetate 2.2472.5 0.1575.6 0.3272.1 0.4272.5
12 1-octanol 0.00474.8 0.0175.13 0.0176.33 0.0174.0
13 Linalool 0.0273.8 0.0174.74 0.0173.64 0.0275.1
14 2-phenylethanol 0.0273.8 0.00375.0 0.00575.5 0.00273.4
15 Ethyl octanoate 0.0175.3 0.00873.5 0.0175.7 0.0173.1
16 a-terpineol 0.0275.0 0.0173.4 0.0178.3 0.0176.0
17 Citronellol 0.0273.2 0.00275.55 0.00374.15 0.00473.5
18 2-phenylethyl acetate 0.0374.6 0.00474.76 0.00472.86 0.0176.5
19 Ethyl decanoate 0.0273.8 0.0173.6 0.0276.2 0.0174.6

There is no statistically difference (Duncan’s test, Po0.05) in retention of aroma compounds between the purees with sucrose and trehalose addition
denoted by the same letter a,b,c and between the purees without addition and with sucrose addition denoted by numbers 1,2,3,4,5.

varieties with the high alcohol content is lower production Table 5

of esters, indicated by the number of the esters in the Similarity coefficient of the dehydrated pear purees and cubes in
profile. This may be the reflection of low activity of comparison with pears before drying
endogenous esterifying enzyme systems in converting Without sugar With sucrose With trehalose
alcohols to esters (Suwanagul & Richardson, 1998). addition addition addition
Unlike other pome fruits such as apples and quinces,
Foam-mat 0.63 0.69 0.83
pears produced very small amounts of aldehydes. Hexanal
dried puree
and 2-hexenal were the only aldehydes found among Freeze-dried 0.93 0.97 0.99
recently studied pear profiles (Chervin et al., 2000; puree
Suwanagul & Richardson, 1998) and they were also Dried cubes 0.77 0.74 0.85
determined in the present study. The addition of trehalose
in pear puree dehydrated by freeze drying high retention of
2-hexenal (73%) was demonstrated, whereas in the foam- In order to compare the obtained data regarding the
mat dried puree with trehalose the retention of these retention of aroma compounds in dehydrated purees and
aldehydes was the lowest (9%). From the group of cubes, and the pears before dehydration, the similarity
terpenes, a-terpineol, linalool and citronellol were identi- coefficient was applied (Datta & Nakai, 1992). The highest
fied. The addition of sucrose in the puree dehydrated by value for the similarity coefficient amounting to 0.99
foam-mat drying contributed to the highest preservation of was determined for the freeze-dried puree with trehalose
terpenes. The amount of 76% of a-terpineol, 50% of (Table 5). The same results were obtained for pear cubes in
linalool and 38% of citronellol was retained. When comparison with the pears before dehydration. The value
compared to the pear puree without any additions, the of 0.85, determined for dehydrated pear cubes previously
addition of trehalose in the course of foam-mat drying did dipped in trehalose solution, is the closest to similarity
not affect the retention of terpenes. In the case of freeze coefficient of pears before dehydration whose value is 1.
drying, the retention of terpenes was the highest in These results confirm the positive influence of trehalose
dehydrated puree with the previously added trehalose. In addition on the improvement of the quality of dehydrated
dehydrated pear cubes, terpenes demonstrated the lowest products. On the basis of the results presented in Tables
retention in the samples of cubes previously dipped in a 2–4, the retention of each individual flavour compound in
solution without sugar, followed by cubes with sucrose all studied samples of pears was compared in relation to
with somewhat higher retention, whereas the highest the pears before drying by applying the multivariate
retention of these compounds was determined in cubes analysis, PCA (Esbensen, 2000). Multivariate analysis
with trehalose. of the quantitative data classified the various samples
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
1584 D. Komes et al. / LWT 40 (2007) 1578–1586

6 0.7
5 0.6 5

4 10
0.5
3
0.4
2 9
0.3
PC 2

PC 2
1 1
7 0.2
0
6 2
-1 3 0.1 37
5
4 4
-2 0.0 8691
14
13
16
19
17
10
152
1812
-3 -0.1
11
-4 -0.2
-10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2
PC 1 PC 1
Fig. 1. Plot of PC-1 vs. PC-2 for the dehydrated pear samples in relation Fig. 3. Plot of PC-1 vs. PC-2 for aroma compounds in freeze-dried pear
to the pears before drying (the numbers of samples refer to Tables 2–4). purees (the numbers of compounds refer to Table 3).

purees, samples no. 5–7 indicate freeze-dried purees and

3 3
samples no. 8–10 indicate dried pear cubes. Sample no. 1
indicates pear puree before drying (control sample). As
2 9 could be expected, the freeze-dried pear puree with
trehalose addition (sample no. 7) is the nearest to the
1 pears before drying (sample no. 1), which is related to the
5 161813 1
914 lowest loss of aroma compounds during freeze drying in
PC 2

0 6
-1
-2
11
-3
-4 -3 -2 -1
PC 1
Fig. 2. Plot of PC-1 vs. PC-2 for aroma compounds in foam-mat dried
pear purees (the numbers of compounds refer to Table 2).
according to processing conditions. The graphically dis-
played classifications corresponded to expected flavour
quality. The obtained results of PCA for all studied
samples of pears were projected on a two-dimensional plot
defined by the first two principal components, PC-1 and
PC-2 (Fig. 1). PC-1 is linear expression, which contains the
maximum amount of variation among the content of
aroma compounds in all samples (Fig. 1) as well as in
foam-mat dried (Fig. 2) and freeze-dried (Fig. 3) samples.
The second principal component (PC-2) is chosen ortho-
gonal to first principal component, and contains the
greatest remaining variation among the content of aroma
compounds that is unrelated to PC-1. The samples were
grouped according to the used method of dehydration.
Oval forms shown on Fig. 1 separate pear purees into three
categories, where samples no. 2–4 indicate foam-mat dried
110
1517
7 12
2
48 comparison with the pear puree before drying. These
results can potentially help processors determine product
quality without sensory evaluation measurements, and
suggest changes in processing conditions to improve
flavour of processed pear purees. The results obtained by
applying PCA, separately for freeze dried and foam-mat
dried purees, are shown in Figs. 2 and 3. Most components
0 1 2 in foam-mat dried as well as in freeze dried are very close
together, indicating that they provide similar information.
Butyl acetate and hexyl acetate in freeze dried, as well as
these two compounds, butyl butanoate and ethyl butanoate
in foam-mat dried, are separated indicating that they show
specifics regarding their retention depending on used
method or sugar addition. By applying this analysis, ethyl
butanoate, butyl acetate, hexyl acetate and butyl butanoate
were shown to be the most represented aromatic com-
pounds, which is in agreement with literature data (Chervin
et al., 2000; Suwanagul & Richardson, 1998).
The retention of some original compounds after drying
may be related to their volatility. Sugar addition into the
pear samples prior to dehydration prevented loss of a part
of fruit volatiles and increased the retention of its
characteristic aroma in dehydrated products, which is in
agreement with the results obtained in previous research
(Komes et al., 2003; Lovrić & Pozderović, 1986). These
results suggested the dependence of retention ability of
some carbohydrates on their molecular weight because the
addition of carbohydrates with higher molecular weight
contributes to the higher retention of aroma compounds in
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
D. Komes et al. / LWT 40 (2007) 1578–1586
dehydrated products. However, the difference in flavour
retention ability registered between sucrose and trehalose
cannot be attributed to this factor, but to other more
complex mechanisms. In addition, since the flavour
volatiles are generally larger than water molecules, they
may not readily diffuse (Rulkens, 1973) or are trapped
(Flink & Karel, 1970) within the fruit matrix during drying.
According to Saravacos (1993), carbohydrates are known
as substances which lock-in volatile compounds. This
shows that some original flavour compounds could be
retained within the dried solid, which are responsible for
the natural aroma of the product. Besides these theories
and mechanisms of aroma retention during dehydration,
aroma retention is certainly affected by the phenomenon
of the reduction of molar ratio of the more volatile
compounds in the vapour phase above the sample
immediately after the addition of sucrose and trehalose
before drying, as well as by the formation of microregions
in the dried layer of the material. In order to explain the
mechanism of the trehalose action three theories were
suggested: water replacement hypothesis, glass transforma-
tion and chemical stability hypotheses. The ‘‘water
replacement’’ hypothesis, first proposed by Crowe et al.
(1994), assumes that sugars hydrogen bond to biomolecules
during dehydratation or freeze.drying, acting as substitutes
of hydration water molecules. Trehalose has superior
effects in ‘‘destructuring’’ the network of water and in
slowing down its dynamics. These two properties could
play a key role in the understanding of the microscopic
mechanisms of bioprotection.
Beside many other characteristics, very interesting is
property of glass transition which prevents the loss of small
hydrophobic volatile esters during drying and storage, thus
ensuring their release only on rewetting and dissolution of
the glassy matrix. Unlike many other sugars that also
undergo glass transition, trehalose produces glasses that
are not hygroscopes (Ekdawi-Sever et al., 2001). By
binding water molecules more tightly, the glass formed
by trehalose could hinder molecular motion more effec-
tively, possibly leading to its superior cryo- and lyoprotec-
tion. The amorphous matrix can exist either as a very
viscous glassy state or as a more liquid-like rubbery state.
Water plays the role of a plasticizer and moisture content
has a strong influence on the transition temperature like
the glass transition temperature, Tg, the crystallization
temperature, Tcr, the melting temperature, Tm, of food
material. When the matrix is in the glassy state, volatiles
are encapsulated in the amorphous glass and low mobility
leading to the increased stability of the material being
preserved. Above the glassy state, temperature collapses
and sometimes crystallization takes place with a character-
istic crystallization time, Tcr, and the encapsulated volatiles
are released (Bruin, 2000). Librizzi et al. (1999) suggest that
the behaviour of trehalose samples in the amorphous–mi-
crocrystal and microcrystal–amorphous transition may be
most relevant in determining the peculiarity of this sugar as
bioprotectant.
1585
As conclusion it can be seen that the best retention
of aroma compounds in dehydrated pear puree was
obtained by trehalose addition, regardless of the dehydra-
tion process applied (freeze drying or foam-mat drying),
although much higher retention of flavour volatiles was
obtained in freeze-dried purees. The aforementioned
products are free of preservatives, maintain their natural
flavour and colour and have an agreeable texture and good
rehydratability properties (Erba et al., 1994). Therefore,
they could be widely used as ingredients in bakery
products, ice cream or yoghurt.
In order to obtain the complete information regarding
the influence of trehalose addition on aroma retention, this
research requires further studies. In this way, by varying
the sweetness and acidity of the canning syrup according to
the characteristics of the raw fruit, a more acceptable
flavour in canned fruit can be obtained (Luh et al., 1986).
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and
Technology, Republic of Croatia.
The authors also would like to thank Emil Zlatič, M.Sc.,
from Biotecnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Slove-
nia, for his assistance during freeze drying.
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