Moya-Leon, M.A. Laboratorio de Fisiología Vegetal, Instituto de Biología Vegetal y Biotecnología, Universidad de Talca, Casilla 747, Talca, Chile. Centro de Investigación en Biotecnología Silvoagrícola (CIBS), Chile.Mountain or highland papaya (Vasconcellea pubescens) is a climacteric fruit which develops a strong and characteristic aroma during ripening. The dynamics of aroma volatile production during ripening of whole papaya fruit were analysed by headspace-SPME. The main compounds produced by the fruit were esters (aliphatic and branched) and alcohols: the most abundant esters were ethyl acetate, ethyl butanoate, methyl butanoate and butyl acetate, comprising 88% of the volatiles in fully ripe fruit; butanol was the most abundant alcohol. Among the volatiles produced, ethyl butanoate, ethyl acetate, ethyl hexanoate and ethyl 2-methylbutanoate were found to be the most potent odour compounds