Abstract:

Sensory quality attributes directly affects overall consumer acceptability and purchasing of melon fruits, mainly
including aroma, color, taste and flavor, which have a strong varietal specificity. To clarify the possible cause of the intervarietal
variability of sensory quality attributes of melon fruits, principal component analysis (PCA) and Pajek were used to
compare 20 different melon materials from 7 varieties in this study. It was found that fruit shape, volatile aroma, and other
physicochemical traits of these materials varied a lot from each other. PCA results showed that the cumulative contribution
of the first three principal components (PC) was 77.0%; PC1 was associated with fruit abscission, yellowing and a rise
in respiration rate and ethylene burst, and PC2 was significantly correlated to the distinction between oriental melon and
muskmelon. The results of Pajek showed that the aroma and physiochemical properties determining the inter-varietal
variability of melon quality included alcohol content, fruit respiration rate, ethylene release rate, yellowing, fruit abscission
and total amount of roma compounds.

Key words: Cucumis melo L., variety, quality, aroma profile, principal component analysis, correlation network