## 2 Results and Discussion
### Principal Component Analysis  
In order to better assess the potential association between the pomegranate samples and the parameters measured within this study, a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was conducted using pomological, physicochemical, sugar, and volatile profiles. Concerning volatiles, compounds occurring only in one sample have been excluded.  
The total variance explained by the first three principal components (PCs) in the model was 70.12%; a plot of the percentage of variance explained by seven PCs was reported in the Supplementary Material (Figure S1). The first principal component PC1 explained the 29.12% total variance. A large majority of the volatile compounds, including most terpen and their derivatives, aldehydes, and alcohols, showed a positive loading on this component, while styrene, isoamyl acetate, and menthol showed a negative loading on PC1. For the physicochemical parameters, the TSS showed a positive loading, whereas the color parameter (L and *b) showed a negative loading.  
Only two pomological descriptors (FSI and CSI) showed a negative loading on PC1. On the contrary, a large majority of the morphological descriptors showed a significant loading on PC2, which explains 22.01% of the total variability. The physicochemical parameters TA and TSS/TA index showed a high loading.  
PC3, explaining 19.05% of the total variance, showed a positive loading with 1-nonanol (fresh, fatty, and floral), heptanal (green and fatty), octanal (aldehyde), nonanal (waxy), \(\beta\)-linalo (flavoral), 1-octanol (waxy, green), caprylic ether, phenyl ethyl alcohol (floral), and \(\beta\)-caryophyllene (woody), for the volatile compounds, and CD and SSI for the morphological descriptors. Sugar showed a significant loading on PC3.  
The PCA score plot (Figure 3) showed a good association of pomegranate samples according to their characteristics. Focusing on the PC1 and PC2 plot, the accessions were grouped by PC1 based on the volatile classes and some of the physicochemical parameters of their juices. In particular, DC and LII are located in the positive region of PC1 and were characterized by more aldehydes and terpen compared to the other juices, TU2, TU3 and AP2. These classes of volatile compounds are mainly associated with sweet, green, floral, and fruity notes. So, it is reasonable to assume that these pomegranate juices presented a more pronounced aroma in respect to the other considered samples. Moreover, TU2, TU3, and AP2 in PC1 stood out from the others for their greater red coloration and brightness (a* and L color parameters). The samples varied significantly in PC2 according to their increase in size and weight per fruit and seeds; AP2, DC, and BA1, located in the positive region of PC2, have fruits and seeds of a larger size compared to TU1, TU2, TU3, and LI1. This is consistent with the literature [32], which reports that pomegranate samples from different geographical origins exhibit high variability in all analyzed traits, including differences in average fruit weight and overall fruit size.  
Figure 3: (**A–C**) The loading plots of the first, second, and third principal components showing the positions of the pomeranate accessions and the different parameters studied.