Wild Pepper (Piper laetispicum) Fruit Quality Traits at Different Developmental Stages

High-quality Piper laetispicum (Piper laetispicum C. DC) is the key to the development of foods, natural medicines, and cosmetics. Its crude fat, ash, piperine, protein, and aroma compounds were determined in this experiment. Principal component (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analyses (HCA) were used to evaluate the aroma compounds at different developmental stages. The main aroma compounds identified using steam distillation combined with GC-MS were sabinene (34.83-76.14%), α-copaene (5.11-19.51%), linalool (2.42-15.70%), trans-caryophyllene (2.37-6.57%), α-pinene (1.51-4.31%), and germacrene D (1.30-4.10%). The aroma metabolites at different developmental stages were analysed using non-targeted metabolomes, and linalool was found to be the most abundant. Based on the experimental results, there were more nutrient compounds in young Piper laetispicum than in the last three developmental stages. The aromatic metabolites contributed the most to PC1. There were also more different metabolites of aroma between the young and expanding stages. Therefore, regarding quality, young fruits have great potential.