## 2 Results and Discussions
### Volatilomics and Molecular Networking Analysis  
A total of 96 VOCs were detected and annotated in copoazu across three ripening stages. These compounds were classified as follows: 16 alcohols and polyols, 12 monoterpencioids, three ethers, five 1,3-dioxanes and 1,3-dioxalanes, one dicarboxylic acid derivatives, 29 esters, nine carbonyl compounds (aldehydes, ketones, and acyloins), and 17 unknowns (Table 1). VOCs were identified using the NIST and GNPS libraries, leveraging molecular ions, isotopic distribution, retention time, and fragmentation patterns. GNPS addressed challenges associated with electron ionization (EI) data by employing advanced computational methods such as unsupervised non-negative matrix factorization for effective deconvolution and co-analysis of large datasets [44]. Additionally, terpenoid standards were employed, with confidence levels assigned according to the criteria outlined in Section 2.4. These findings align with previous reports on copoazu VOCs [13; 14; 15; 17]; however, this is the first comparative study on the volatile profiles of copoazu across different ripening stages. Figure 2: Ripening stages of copoazu. Longitudinal cut of the fruit. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**GNPS Scan** & **tts** & **Metabolite** & **Formula** & **Confidence Level *** & **Identification** & **ClassyFire** \\
**Number** & **tts** & **Metabolite** & **Formula** & **Confidence Level *** & **Identification** & **(SubClass)** \\ \hline
5 & 2.30 & 2-methylburt-3-en-2-ol & C\({}_{6}\)H\({}_{0}\)O & 3 & NIST & Alcohols and polyols \\
7 & 2.47 & 2-methylpropanan-1-ol & C\({}_{4}\)H\({}_{0}\)O & 2 & GNPS, NIST & Alcohols and polyols \\
10 & 2.93 & butan-1-ol & C\({}_{4}\)H\({}_{0}\)O & 2 & GNPS, NIST & Alcohols and polyols \\
11 & 3.22 & pent-1-en-3-ol & C\({}_{5}\)H\({}_{0}\)O & 2 & GNPS, NIST & Alcohols and polyols \\
14 & 3.53 & pentan-3-ol & C\({}_{5}\)H\({}_{0}\)O & 2 & GNPS, NIST & Alcohols and polyols \\
25 & 4.26 & propane-1,2-diol & C\({}_{5}\)H\({}_{0}\)O & 3 & GNPS & Alcohols and polyolsols \\
26 & 4.35 & 3-methylburt-1-ol & C\({}_{5}\)H\({}_{12}\)O & 2 & GNPS, NIST & Alcohols and polyols \\
27 & 4.44 & 2-methylburt-1-ol & C\({}_{5}\)H\({}_{0}\)O & 2 & GNPS, NIST & Alcohols and polyolsols \\
31 & 5.41 & pentan-1-ol & C\({}_{5}\)H\({}_{12}\)O & 3 & NIST & Alcohols and polyols \\
34 & 5.53 & pentan-2-en-1-ol & C\({}_{5}\)H\({}_{10}\)O & 2 & GNPS, NIST & Alcohols and polyols \\
36 & 5.68 & 2-methylburt-2-en-ol & C\({}_{5}\)H\({}_{0}\)O & 2 & GNPS, NIST & Alcohols and polyols \\
37 & 5.79 & 2-3-butanediol (Isomer I) & C\({}_{5}\)H\({}_{0}\)O & 2 & GNPS, NIST & Alcohols and polyols \\
44 & 6.27 & 2,3-butanediol (Isomer II) & C\({}_{5}\)H\({}_{0}\)O & 3 & GNPS & Alcohols and polyols \\
53 & 8.58 & 2-ethylburt-1-ol & C\({}_{5}\)H\({}_{10}\)O & 2 & GNPS, NIST & Alcohols and polyols \\
58 & 10.25 & hexan-1-ol & C\({}_{5}\)H\({}_{10}\)O & 2 & GNPS, NIST & Fatty alcohols \\
119 & 24.12 & 2-ethyl-1-hexanol & C\({}_{5}\)H\({}_{10}\)O & 4 & GNPS & Alcohols and polyols \\
2 & 2.15 & butanal & C\({}_{5}\)H\({}_{0}\)O & 3 & NIST & Carbonyl compounds \\
8 & 2.78 & 3-methylburtanal & C\({}_{5}\)H\({}_{10}\)O & 2 & GNPS, NIST & Carbonyl compounds \\
12 & 3.46 & pentan-3-one & C\({}_{5}\)H\({}_{10}\)O & 3 & NIST & Carbonyl compounds \\
20 & 3.74 & 3-hydroxy-2-butanone & C\({}_{5}\)H\({}_{0}\)O & 3 & NIST & Carbonyl compounds \\
35 & 5.60 & 3-methylpentan-2-one & C\({}_{5}\)H\({}_{12}\)O & 2 & GNPS, NIST & Carbonyl compounds \\
45 & 6.50 & hexanal & C\({}_{5}\)H\({}_{12}\)O & 3 & GNPS & Carbonyl compounds \\
A volatilomic study explored the variation in VOCs and their correlations across the three ripening stages of copoazu. The study included multivariate statistical analysis and molecular networking to correlate the compounds. Principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted to differentiate the volatile profiles during the maturation stages of copoazu. Figure 3a shows that components (PC1 and PC2) accounted for 87.4% of the variance in the data.