Mathematical Modeling of Respiration Rate of Mango (Magnifera indica)

Abstract

Respiration rates (RR) have been used as an index for the metabolic activities of Mango during ripening and senescence. A knowledge on respiration rate will be very much needed for enhanced shelf life of Mango particularly during Modified Atmosphere Storage. Hence a work was carried out to determine respiration rates of three varities of mango (Magnifera indica) viz., Malgoa, Banganapalli and Neelum stored at three different tempertautres (Ambient, 24°C and 14°C). Known weight of fruits were kept under air tight condition in the plastic container fitted with a silicon septum. Every day three gas samples of 5 ml volume were drawn from the chamber through silicon rubber septum using a needle and the oxygen concentration was found out using MAP analyzer. The oxygen concentration was determined for 13 days of storage at all temperatures. The respiration rates were determined using experimentally and the values were substituted in formulae method for prediction. The value of the constants were determined using non-linear regression using Sigmaplot 8.0 software. The development of the mathematical model for the prediction of Respiration Rates were found to be useful for further reference.