## 4 Discussion  
The chromatographic approach applied in this study was able to successfully contribute to the elucidation of the \"Rocha\" cultivar volatile profile. Overall, a high chromatographic resolution was achieved while maintaining a good spectral quality for trace peaks. As in most fruits, volatile profiles in pears are mainly constituted of aliphatic esters and it has been shown that their concentrations in different cultivars determined their organoleptic attributes and influence consumers preferences [43]. Most volatile compounds detected in \"Rocha\" pear headspace were in accordance with other studies of volatiles compounds released by European pears, in which acetate and butanoate esters were the most abundant components of this family [48; 49]. However, \(\alpha\)-fanesene represented 44% of total released compounds reported here, which was a value considerably higher than the one previously reported by [PERSON] et al. (1.21%) on ripe \"Rocha\" pears. Noteably, \(\alpha\)-fanesene is a characteristic compound of pome fruits known to accumulate in pear skin across storage [50]. Since the pears analyzed in this study had already been stored for six months, high levels of \(\alpha\)-fanesene were expected, and therefore explained the reported results. On the basis of the several parameters analyzed across the four-month pilot scale storage assay, it is possible to observe a distinct impact of coating application between NA and DCA conditions. Overall, the presence of coatings in NA storage had little or no impact as compared with the uncoated pears. Regarding TSS, previous studies have demonstrated a similar behavior in which coatings had no impact on this quality parameter, although an increase was observed along the initial months of storage due to the conversion of starch into soluble sugars [13; 51]. In the present study, once coatings were applied to pears after six months of storage, they had most likely already reached their maximum  
Figure 9: Boxplot representation of absolute areas of \(\alpha\)-farnesene and 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one (MHO) at day 134. (**a,b**) NA (normal atmosphere); (**c,d**) DCA (dynamic controlled atmosphere) storage conditions. For each storage, four coating conditions are presented as follows: CTR (control), PCT (pectin), CT1 (coating 1), and CT2 (coating 2). Each boxplot represents the areas of five replicates. The same lowercase letter indicates no significant differences between conditions (\(p<0.05\)). TSS content, hence, a constant TSS content was observed across the assay. Hue angle was also slightly affected by coatings in NA storage. Maintenance of hue color between control and all coated pears right after coating application is indeed considered to be an advantage of these types of coatings, since it demonstrates their optical clarity, and thus does not have a negative visual impact on treated fruits. However, the slight difference of hue angle in control and coated pears indicates that coatings were not capable of slowing down the ripening process. This absence of a clear preservation increase under NA storage was also visible in the volatile compounds emitted by pears. The HCA analysis of the whole dataset of identified compounds did not exhibit a clear clustering in coating conditions or the control, and there were no clear differences in relative amounts of chemical families among them. CTs evolution also corroborates other parameters' behavior, since coatings were not able to prevent their accumulation except for CT1, where a slight delay was observed possibly due to a superior antioxidant potential of this extract. Overall, in this kind of storage, although desirable characteristics were maintained using coatings, an increased preservation and prevention of SC was not observed, possibly due to a low antioxidant activity of the extracts used. Coated pears stored under DCA suffered different effects as compared with NA.