Abstract
ABSTRACT Knowing the maturation of the Acrocomia aculeata (macaw palm) fruit is decisive for harvest to be performed when the fruit has a higher content and quality of oil. There are different approaches to monitor maturation and they can be classified as destructive and non-destructive. Variables obtained by optical instruments have been used to determine maturation stage. The present study evaluated the relationship between the biological activity measured by the optical technique of biospeckle laser and firmness, measured in the Acrocomia aculeata fruit pulp between the 41st and 61st week after flowering. The biological activity was quantified by biospeckle images, while the fruit pulp firmness was determined by digital penetrometer. Correlations between variables were evaluated during maturation and in the senescence of fruits. According to the results, significant correlation between biological activity and firmness was found for both evaluated conditions, demonstrating that biospeckle laser can be an effective non-invasive indicator of Acrocomia aculeate fruit maturation assisting in the determination of the moment of harvest.
Highlights
Acrocomia aculeata, popularly known as macaw palm, is considered as a promising crop to compose the Brazilian bioenergetic matrix, since its fruits have high contents of oil with the adequate quality for the production of biofuels (Hiane et al, 2005). Motoike et al (2013) claim that the efficient use of Acrocomia aculeata for oil extraction is still limited by the scarce information on fruit maturation
Since firmness is a parameter used as indicator of fruit maturation, this study aimed to evaluate the relationship between the biological activity measured by the optical technique of biospeckle laser and pulp firmness of Acrocomia aculeata fruits along the maturation weeks and during the senescence period after harvest
In the evaluation of the response of the biological activity measured by the biospeckle laser (Figure 2B), this variable tended to increase along the analyzed period of maturation
Summary
Popularly known as macaw palm, is considered as a promising crop to compose the Brazilian bioenergetic matrix, since its fruits have high contents of oil with the adequate quality for the production of biofuels (Hiane et al, 2005). Motoike et al (2013) claim that the efficient use of Acrocomia aculeata for oil extraction is still limited by the scarce information on fruit maturation. Popularly known as macaw palm, is considered as a promising crop to compose the Brazilian bioenergetic matrix, since its fruits have high contents of oil with the adequate quality for the production of biofuels (Hiane et al, 2005). According to Mota et al (2011), physical and chemical parameters obtained in the pulp of Acrocomia aculeata fruits are indicators of the adequate moment for harvest, since this fruit part contains the highest contents of oil. Characteristics associated with fruit maturation are usually evaluated using instrumental and chemical methods that are destructive and involve manual work (Santos et al, 2013; Stanger et al, 2014). The optical technique known as biospeckle laser has been widely employed in studies on food quality (Rabal & Braga, 2008; Chargot et al, 2012; Retheesh et al, 2016)
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