Abstract
The present investigation aimed to evaluate the prospection of the quality and the bioactive potential of four seedless watermelon hybrids. Fruits were collected from the commercial farms located at the Jaguaribe-Açu agricultural Valley/RN and Jaguaribe Valley/CE, Brazil. Plant material included the hybrids 'Ashira', 'Extasy', 'Mickylee' and 'Valentino'. The following parameters were evaluated: fruit weight; longitudinal and transverse diameter; fruit shape index; pulp firmness; pulp color; shell thickness; soluble solids, titratable acidity, pH, soluble solids and titratable acidity ratio, total and reducers soluble sugars, vitamin C, total carotenoids, lycopene, yellow flavonoids, total anthocyanins and total polyphenols. The trial was carried out by a completely randomized design. The comparison of means was performed using one way ANOVA at the Tukey HSD test. All the hybrids showed fruits small, i.e., “icebox” type, with mean values lower than 5.5 kg, spherical shape and a higher portion of edible pulp. The fruits showed high pulp firmness leading a great resistance to mechanical injuries sustained due to transport, besides long postharvest shelf life. 'Ashira' showed the highest proportion of sugars present in the fruit due to the increase of 73% in the SS/AT ratio compared to the other hybrids. 'Extasy' presented high content of total carotenoids whereas 'Ashira' stood out in the content of total polyphenols. The hybrids are promising alternatives to the local and export watermelon market, in view of the high quality and bioactive potential linked to the good adaptability and stability under the growth conditions.
Highlights
Watermelon [Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai] is a widespread Cucurbitaceae, native to the drier areas of south-central Africa, near the Kalahari Desert (Namibia and Botswana)
Physical variables: fruit weight (g) evaluation was carried out with the aid of semi-analytical scale and values expressed in grams; longitudinal and transverse diameter and shell thickness were determined with the aid of a millimeter ruler, with a reading for each half of the fruit; fruit shape index was established from the ratio between longitudinal and transverse diameter; pulp firmness, determined by using a hand-held penetrometer (MagnessTaylor model FT 011) with results expressed in Newton (N); pulp color, performed by a digital colorimeter (MINOLTA, Chroma Meter Model CR-200B) using a CIELAB system (L*, a* and b*) [16]
Physicochemical variables: soluble solids (SS), was determined by AOAC (2005) [17] using a digital refractometer (ATAGO® N1, Kirkland-USA), with the results expressed in °Brix; titratable acidity (TA) of the pulp was carried with the aid of a pH meter, using 0.1 N NaOH until reaching pH ± 8,1 [17]
Summary
Watermelon [Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai] is a widespread Cucurbitaceae, native to the drier areas of south-central Africa, near the Kalahari Desert (Namibia and Botswana). There are many traditionally watermelon cultivars available in the Brazilian commercial market, besides the genetic aspects, the selection of the cultivars is based on the logistics network by the selection of the transport-resistant and better appearance products [4]. Nowadays, attributes such as small fruit size, a trait that facilitates transport and packaging, as well as the absence of seeds in the fruits are aspects commercially exploited by companies as a market novelty and constitute key attributes for crop expansion [6, 7]. The present investigation aimed to evaluate the prospection of the quality and the bioactive potential of four seedless watermelon hybrids ('Ashira', 'Extasy', 'Mickylee' and 'Valentino'), cultivated under conventional management in the climatic conditions of the Brazilian semiarid
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