Changes of Peel Essential Oil Composition of Four Tunisian Citrus during Fruit Maturation

Table 2

Variations of levels (%) of chemical classes of essential oils obtained from four cultivars of citrus at different ripening stages.

Chemical classes	Ripening stage	Bitter orange	Lemon	Orange maltaise	Mandarin
Monoterpenes hydrcarbons	Stage 1	83.35^Bab	89.83^Aa	89.72^Aa	84.73^Aab
	Stage 2	71.21^Cb	87.15^ABa	87.12^ABa	66.45^Bc
	Stage 3	94.61^Aa	90.43^Ab	90.15^Ab	89.57^Ab
Oxygenated monoterpenes	Stage 1	7.75^Ba	3.92^Cb	1.50^Bc	2.10^Bb
	Stage 2	22.51^Aa	8.72^Ab	7.15^Ab	28.68^Aa
	Stage 3	2.11^Cc	5.61^Ba	1.82^Bd	3.54^Bb
Sesquiterpenes hydrocarbon	Stage 1	0.35^Aa	0.06^Bb	0.26^Aa	0.01^Bb
	Stage 2	0.44^Ab	1.28^Aa	0.28^Ab	0.08^Bc
	Stage 3	0.21^Abc	1.39^Aa	0.35^Ab	0.34^Ab
Oxygenated sesquiterpenes	Stage 1	0.42^Ab	0.01^Ac	0.01^Ac	1.36^Ba
	Stage 2	0.16^Bb	0.01^Ac	0.01^Ac	0.27^Ca
	Stage 3	0.09^Bb	0.01^Ab	0.01^Ab	3.29^Aa

Means of three replicates. (Values with different superscripts are significantly different at 𝑃<0.05). Caps superscripts (comparison between stages). Small superscripts (comparison between citrus species).