Chlorophyll fluorescence as a tool to evaluate the ripening of ‘Golden’ papaya fruit
Ilana Urbano Bron, Rafael Vasconcelos Ribeiro ,Marisa Azzolini, Angelo Pedro Jacomino and Eduardo Caruso Machado
Postharvest Biology and Technology Volume 33, Issue 2 , August 2004, Pages 163-173
2004
บทคัดย่อ
Fruitclassification based on one or more physical or physiological attributes is important to improve quality during storage and marketing. Our objectives were to evaluate changes in chlorophyll fluorescence of papayafruit(Carica papaya L. cv. Golden) at different ripeness stages and during the ripening to determine if thisnon-destructivetechnique might assist the evaluation offruitripeness. Maximal (Fm), minimal (Fo), variable (Fv), variable:maximal (Fv/Fm) and maximal:minimal (Fm/Fo) chlorophyll fluorescence,fruitfirmness, and skin color (H°) were evaluated at three ripeness stages and during the ripening of papayafruit.Simple and multiple empirical regressions assessed the relationships among all measured parameters. The three ripeness stages were differentiated using the chlorophyll fluorescence parameters. All chlorophyll fluorescence parameters declined with the progress offruitripening, where Fm and Fo showed the best correlation with changes in skin color andfruitfirmness. This suggests a relationship between the fluorescence and the level of papayafruitsenescence. Chlorophyll fluorescence decline was probably due to chlorophyll degradation and also to the degree of chloroplast membrane injury due tofruitripeness and senescence. Chlorophyll fluorescence associated with chloroplast function, declined in parallel with the decline of other quality characteristics during papayafruitripening. The use of a single parameter to determine the overall quality of papayafruitmay be unreliable, and the chlorophyll fluorescence technique may be a helpful, complementary,non-destructivetechnology that can be combined with other quality measurement techniques.