Natural Occurrence of Undecaenes in Some Fruits and Vegetables

1-(E,Z)-3,5-undecatriene and 1-(E,Z,Z)-3,5,8-undecatetraene were isolated under enzyme inhibition from edible parts of peach, passion fruit, and kiwi; the triene only was found in celery, parsley, mandarine, apple and pear. Capillary gas chromatography, sniffing-capillary gas chromatography, and combined “live”-capillary gas chromatography-mass spectrometry of the concentrated liquid-liquid extracts were used to establish their identity. Owing to their ultra-low odor detection thresholds and the proposed biogenesis, these trace compounds may be “character impacts” in a wide variety of food flavors of plant origin.