Biotic elicitors enhance flavour compounds during accelerated curing of vanilla beans

Food-grade elicitors, selected after an initial screening, were used in combination with pre-treatments for the accelerated curing of beans. When acetone dried red beet elicitor - a rich source of peroxidase (98,500Ug-1 dry weight) was used, 2.65% vanillin was formed in 10 days, which was 1.7-fold higher than in control beans (blanched+scarified) of this study and 3.23-fold higher than the conventional curing (0.82%). HPLC analysis of elicitor-treated samples showed the formation of almost all the major compounds found in the conventionally cured beans (cured for 3-6 months) with better sensorial properties. These observations appear useful for developing a rapid process for the curing of vanilla beans.