Abstract :
[en] Banana fruit (Musa sp.) ranks fourth in developing world's production, and has economical and nutritional key values. The popular and most dominant variety of the dessert banana group is the Cavendish variety, and Plantain represents that status for the cooking banana group. Despite the importance of the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), which are secondary metabolites with a high vapour pressure, in their utility in the plant protection and communication processes, they were never documented for the plant itself. Thus, the aim of this PHD thesis is to study the VOCs emitted by the plant, rather than their fruits or flowers. A protocol was optimized for the extraction of the banana plant's VOCs. The results of the first analysis showed 11 VOCs for the Cavendish, mainly (E,E)-α-farnesene (87.90 ± 11.28 ng/µl), methyl salicylate (33.82 ± 14.29) and 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one (29.60 ± 11.66), and 14 VOCs for the Pacific Plantain cultivars, mainly (Z,E)-α-farnesene (799.64 ± 503.15),(E,E)-α-farnesene (571.24 ± 381.70) and (E) β ocimene (241.76 ± 158.49). Most of these compounds belong to the terpenes group (8 for Cavendish, 10 for Pacific Plantain). The other compounds detected were ketones, esters and aldehydes. Eight compounds were common between the two varieties (myrcene, Z and E β-ocimene, 6-methyl-5-hepten-2 one, 6-methyl-3,5-hepadien-2-one, a-farnesene, methyl salicylate and β-ionone). This exploratory study paves the way for an in-depth characterisation of VOCs emitted by Musa plants.
