Abstract:

Unripe oriental melons were bagged with seven bagging materials with different light transmittances and the
variations in fruit appearance and flavor quality of mature oriental melons were examined. The results showed that bagging
greatly improved the fruit appearance and quality. A total of 120 compounds were detected in melons with different bagging
treatments. These compounds were mainly esters (76) and also included alcohols (20), aldehyde (4), alkyl alkene (10),
phenol (4), acid (4), ether (2), etc. In all the treatments, ethyl acetate was the most predominant compound, with a relative
content of more than 57%. There was no significant difference in the number of compounds identified from control and other
treatments. The relative content of the common compounds (27) shared by different bagging treatments, accounting for a
large proportion (94.02% to 99.29%) of all identified compounds, was more than 90%, suggesting that the 27 compounds are
the main flavor compounds in the melon. These results showed that bagging had little effects on the flavor quality of oriental
melon and thus could be safely applied in the production of vegetables.

Key words: bagging, oriental melon, fruit appearance and flavor quality