Five experimental coatings with different resistance to gas exchange were used with freshly harvested and 20-week commercially stored apples of Delicious, Fuji, Braeburn, and Granny Smith varieties. The coated or noncoated apples were held at 20 degrees C for up to 4 weeks. The gas partial pressures inside the fruits with the various coatings ranged from 1 to 25 kPa CO(2) and from 20 to 1 kPa O(2). Volatile evaporation rates were measured, as also were the volatiles compositions in the fruit. The coatings with intermediate gas resistance (carnauba-shellac mixture and candelilla) gave intermediate values of CO(2) and O(2) in the internal atmosphere in Delicious, Fuji, and Braeburn apples and the highest concentrations of butyl acetate and 2-methylbutyl acetate in the fruits. The coatings with the highest gas resistance (shellac and shellac-protein) caused high internal CO(2) and low O(2), resulting in anaerobic fermentation in Braeburn and Granny Smith apples and relatively high amounts of low-molecular-weight ethyl esters trapped within the fruit. A small portion of the alcohols were evaporated from fruits compared to esters, this attributed to their high Henry's law coefficients.