Qualitative and Quantitative Studies of Floral Scent in Ornamental Plants: Volatile Organic Compounds Sampling Techniques and Characterization of Fragrance Compound

Modern plant breeding has caused many of the most popular flowers to lose much of the scent of their ancestors. As plants have been bred for maximize shape, color and other traits, such as long vase life after cutting, the scents have mysteriously vanished. Nowadays improving floral scent is a goal of horticulture industry. To date, over 1700 floral volatile organic compounds have been identified. Interestingly, they are derived from only a few biochemical networks, which include the terpenoid, phenylpropanoid/benzenoid and fatty acid biosynthetic pathways. Although previous studies on floral scent have been mostly descriptive, our studies focuse on recently developed methods for the measurement of floral scent. The development of static and dynamic techniques for headspace collection of volatiles in combination with gas chromatographymass spectrometry and z-noze analysises have significantly improved our understanding of the biosynthesis of plant volatile organic compounds. Recent progresses in analytical chemistry have made it possible to collect and identify the blends ofchemical compounds that comprise floral odors. A thorough analysis of fragrance chemistry yields a list of such compounds, their relative abundance within an odor blend, and their absolute emission rates per unit floral mass, over time.

Qualitative and Quantitative Studies of Floral Scent in Ornamental Plants: Volatile Organic Compounds Sampling Techniques and Characterization of Fragrance Compound Keywords:

Floral scent , Gas chromatography-mass , Headspace , Sampling techniques ,