By Sean Henahan, Access Excellence

LEXINGTON, KY (9/24/96) Synthetic versions of the same chemicals that make fresh fruit taste and smell so good might also be useful for protecting and preserving many food plants- while reducing dependence on pesticides- report researchers at the University of Kentucky.

"We are taking natural chemicals that are produced in plants and that we normally have in our diet, and trying to see if they can be used in place of synthetic pesticides for preserving fruits and vegetables," says Dr. Thomas Hamilton-Kemp, professor of horticulture at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.

"When we fumigate the fruit with these natural chemicals, the fruit metabolizes about two-thirds of the chemicals into new products. And it turns out that many of the metabolites are also natural chemicals that are in the aroma of fruits and vegetables," he explains.

Fruits and vegetables that could potentially be treated include grapes, apples, blackberries and raspberries, as well as strawberries, which are vulnerable to attack in the field by a gray mold known as Botrytis. Hamilton-Kemp notes that the number of synthetic pesticides available to strawberry growers is dwindling, and that none are currently available commercially to treat the ripe fruit:

"There's more pressure now to find 'natural control methods,' and this would perhaps be one of those." The technique he and his colleagues are developing could be used to kill the mold en route in the refrigerated trucks that transport strawberries to market. Because strawberries metabolize the applied chemicals into other flavor compounds, Hamilton-Kemp speculates the technique could be used to improve the taste of flavor-challenged fruit. But he warns that application could backfire if it upsets the delicate balance among the myriad different compounds that comprise the flavor of a berry.

The research appears in the September 1996 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.