Enantioselective effects of imazalil on banana postharvest ripening aroma revealed by integrated volatilomics, lipidomics and metabolomics.

Imazalil (IMZ) is the most widely used postharvest fungicide during banana storage and transport, yet its potential impact on banana quality remains largely unknown. In this study, integrated volatilomics, targeted lipidomics, and untargeted metabolomics were applied to investigate how different enantiomers of IMZ affect aroma in the postharvest banana yellow ripening stage. Results showed that Rac-IMZ and R-(-)-IMZ disrupted fatty acid and branched-chain amino acid metabolism, significantly lowering precursor pools of linoleic acid, α-linolenic acid, leucine, and valine required for ester formation via the lipoxygenase and amino acid pathways. S-(+)-IMZ exhibited minimal interference with these pathways, thereby maintaining aroma quality comparable to untreated fruit. These findings highlight an impact associated with the use of racemic imazalil in banana postharvest preservation and provide multi-omics evidence that replacing the racemate with the single S-(+)-enantiomer can achieve effective postharvest disease control while largely preserving the characteristic aroma of banana.