The extraction and characterisation of the aroma
compounds were carried out by means of the static
head-space GC analysis HS-GC), which is able to de-
tect the most volatile aroma compounds. Each sample
was prepared with 10 g of homogenised melon flesh put
into a 20 ml vial. The vial was tightly closed and im-
mediately frozen at 30°C until use.At the moment of
HS-GC analysis the vials were kept at 80°C for 60 min,
then 500 ll of the head space were injected into a GC
analyser by means of anautomatic
sampler. Each variety was checked in
duplicate.The GC analyser was equipped with a capil-
lary DB-WAX lengthˆ60 m) column and flame ioni-
sation detector with a He flux of 1.2ml/min.The
column temperature was programmed as follows: 40°C