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 (98,500 U g−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.