ศูนย์นวัตกรรมเทคโนโลยีหลังการเก็บเกี่ยว

Fruit quality of Vesuvian apricots harvested at different ripening stages after a cold-storage period

Santin A.; Basile B.; Cirillo C. and Forlani M.

5th International Postharvest Symposium . Volume of Abstract . Verona, Italy 6-11 June 2004, p.119

2004

บทคัดย่อ

  The cultivation of apricot trees in the Campania region (Southern Italy) has long years of tradition, as demonstrated by the wide range of autochthonous cultivars. All of them, despite their good organoleptic characteristics, have been little investigated about the post-harvest quality.

The present work aimed to evaluate fruit quality of seven of these cultivars, grown in the Vesuvius area (Boccuccia, Ceccona, Pellecchiella, Portici, Prete, Prevetarella e Vitillo), at harvest and after a cold-storage period (7 days at 4°C). Moreover, the effectiveness of a non-destructive method (NIRs) in measuring fruit flesh firmness and solid soluble content was evaluated and compared to the destructive method. Fruit were harvested at three ripening stages (unripe, commercial ripe and ripe fruit) defined by a visual determination of different fruit ground colours (green-yellow, yellow-green and yellow-orange skin). In addition, fruit weight and skin colour were determined for each treatment. The latter was obtained by the fruit chromatic values L*, a* and b* measured with a Minolta colour-meter.

Fruit skin colour was affected by cold-storage at each ripening level for each cultivar. In detail, the a* parameter, representing the green-red colour axis, resulted to be increased after the cold-storage period, whereas b* tended to decrease.

After the cold-storage period for all the cultivars and colour classes, fruit flesh firmness decreased. Solid soluble content was also affected by the cold-storage period.

NIRs was an effective methodology in estimating correctly fruit solid soluble content at harvest, but it slightly underestimated this parameter for most of the cultivars when measurements were performed o­n cold-stored fruit. The effectiveness of the non-destructive method appeared to be lower in the measurements of flesh firmness of fruit both at harvest and after the cold-storage period.