Click on “Download PDF” for the PDF version or on the title for the HTML version.


If you are not an ASABE member or if your employer has not arranged for access to the full-text, Click here for options.

Physico-chemical properties of the soursop fruit (Annona muricata L. cv. Elita) in postharvest

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  2012 Dallas, Texas, July 29 - August 1, 2012  121340866.(doi:10.13031/2013.41985)
Authors:   CARLOS JULIO MÁRQUEZ CARDOZO, JOSÉ RÉGULO CARTAGENA VALENZUELA
Keywords:   Respiration, postharvest physiology, transpiration, ethylene, Soursop

Fruit consumption is increasing around the world as well as its population. The World Health Organization recommends a minimum consumption of 120 kg fruit/person/year. Fruits such as soursop provide nutrients, phytochemicals and antioxidants which are vital to human health, as well as bioactive substances such as vitamin C, flavonoids, anthocyanins and carotenoids, among others. In this research, soursop (Annona muricata L. cv. Elita) fruits were collected at physiological maturity in two production seasons for their physiological (respiration rate, ethylene production and physiological loss of weight) and physico-chemical characterization (pulp, seeds and skin yield, total soluble solids (TSS), total acidity, pH and firmness). We found that ethylene production peaked at day 6 after-harvest with a value of 133.2 uL kg-1 h-1. This parameter was found to be increasing during postharvest, with peaks on days 4 and 6, coinciding with the climacteric peaks of biphasic respiration, the largest of which reached a value of 186.9 mg CO2 kg-1 h-1. This is probably the starter for the cascade of events that feature the ripening process, among which changes in TSS, acidity and fruit firmness were outstandingly visible.

(Download PDF)    (Export to EndNotes)