Sensory Determination of Peach and Nectarine Germplasms with Instrumental Analysis

The flavour and mouthfeel of peaches are crucial qualities of peach germplasm resources that significantly influence consumer preferences. In this study, we utilized 212 peach germplasm resources from the Nanjing Peach Resource Repository, National Fruit Germplasm facility, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences as materials for sensory analysis, electronic nose analysis, and composition analysis via high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). In the sensory analysis, we divided 212 peach germplasms into three clusters based on hierarchical cluster analysis (d = 5). No.27, No.151, and No.46 emerged as the most representative of these clusters. The electronic nose was used to conduct an evaluation of the aroma profiles of the 212 peach germplasms, revealing that the primary distinguishing factors of peach aroma can be attributed to three sensors: W1S (methane), W1W (terpenes and organosulfur compounds), and W5S (hydrocarbons and aromatic compounds). The primary differences in the aromatic substances were characterized by sensors W2W (aromatic compounds, sulphur, and chlorine compounds) and W1C (aromatic benzene). The HPLC analysis indicated that the persistence of peach sensory characteristics was positively correlated with acids and sourness and negatively correlated with sweetness and the ratio of sugar to acids. The overall impression of the 212 peach germplasms revealed a negative correlation with acids, while a positive correlation was observed between the overall impression and the ratio of sugar to acids. Therefore, this study substantially contributes to the preliminary screening of the analysed specific characteristics of peach germplasms such as No.27, No.46, No.151, and No.211. These selections may provide valuable information for the potential creation of superior germplasm resources.