Quantitative characterization of important metabolites of avocado fruit by gas chromatography coupled to different detectors (APCI-TOF MS and FID)

A total of 27 compounds were quantified by GC-APCI-MS, whilst GC-FID allowed the proper quantification of 7 analytes. The concentration of organic acids, flavonoids and vitamins tend, in general, to decrease with the ripening process, whereas phenolic acids such as ferulic or p-coumaric acids usually increase their concentration as the fruit ripens. To corroborate further on the metabolic changes associated with the avocado varieties and/or ripening, we used principal component analysis, identifying quinic and p-coumaric acids, epicatechin and quercetin as some of the most influential compounds explaining the classification of the samples under study.