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VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS PRODUCTION DURING SPOILAGE OFAFRICAN HORNED CUCUMBER FRUITS

Microorganisms associated with the production of volatile organic compound in spoilt African horned cucumber have been isolated by standard plate count (SPC) and identified. The mean aerobic colony count observed for bacteria ranged from 3.3 to 8.3 x 107 CFU/g while those of fungi ranged from 4.0 x 103 to 1.1 x 104 CFU/g. The organisms isolated and identified included three species of bacteria (Bacillus lentus, Bacillus firmus and Paenibacillus alveii) while three of fungi (Rhizopus stolonifer, Mucor circinelloides, and Monascus ruber). GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of 11 volatile organic compounds in the healthy ripe African horned cucumber and 21 volatile organic compounds in spoilt African horned cucumber. Six volatile organic compounds were common to spoilt and healthy African horned cucumber while 1,2,3, trimethyl benzene, Decane 1,4-Dimethyl-2-ethyl benzene, tetralin, 6- methyl tetralin, phenyl benzene (Lemonene), 2,3-dimethylnaphthale (Guajen), (1- Ethyl-2-methyl-1-propenyl) benzene, Diphenyl methane (Ditan), Hexadecane, Heptadecane, 6- octadecanoic acid (Z) and 1-Nondecanol were unique to spoilt African horned cucumber fruits. This study suggests that these unique volatile organic compounds could provide baseline knowledge for curbing postharvest losses and the volatile organic compound could form the basis for constructing a metabolomics database for Nigeria.