CAROTENOIDS IN 3 STAGES OF RIPENING OF MANGO

Abstract

SUMMARYThe distribution of carotenoids, both qualitative and quantitative, during 3 stages of ripening of mango has been studied using chromatographic, spectroscopic and chemical methods. There was an increase in content as well as in number of carotenoids during ripening. The present study showed there were 15, 14 and 17 different carotenoids in the unripe, partially ripe and fully ripe mangoes, respectively. Even though phytofluene (39.26%) was the major carotenoid in the partially ripe mango, β‐carotene constituted the major carotenoid in the unripe (37.47%) and fully ripe mango (50.64%). cis‐β‐Carotene was present only in the fully ripe mango. Only the unripe mango contained ζ‐carotene, whereas γ‐carotene was present in all the 3 stages of ripening. The major xanthophyll present in the unripe mango was mutatoxanthin (9.44%), whereas auroxanthin constituted the major hydroxylated carotenoid of the partially ripe (5.07%) and fully ripe (10.40%) mangoes. The percent of cryptoxanthin dropped to lower levels during ripening. As ripening proceeded, lutein completely disappeared. There were significant quantities of zeaxanthin in the partially ripe and fully ripe mango. Epoxy carotenoids such as 5,6‐monoepoxy‐β‐carotene, mutatochrome, cis‐violaxanthin, luteoxanthin, mutatoxanthin and auroxanthin were observed in all 3 stages of ripening.