Abstract
and the composition of the internal atmosphere has been studied in several fruits. In the case of the banana (Musa sapientum) and the papaya (Carica papaya), Wardlaw and Leonard (24, 25) observed the coincidence of the onset of the climacteric rise with the peak in oxygen concentration inside these fruits. With the respiratory rise the oxygen level dropped, reaching very low values of 1 % at late stages of senescence. Impressed with the marked changes in the gaseous composition, they suggested that the internal oxygen concentration is the controlling mechanism of the climacteric pattern. Trout et al. (22) reported that in mature apples oxygen deficiency depressed respiration and retarded ripening. Observations on the epidermal layers as the tissue that offers major resistance to gaseous diffusion were made by Trout et al. (22) for the apple and by Clendenning (7) for the tomato. Biale (4) included in his review a brief account of the studies dealing with the internal atmospheres of fruits. The avocado fruit is distinguished from other fruits by its low fermentative capacity, shown by depression of CO2 evolution and ripening under anaerobic conditions (3). This study was undertaken, therefore, with the purpose of finding an explanation for the physiological behavior of the avocado in terms of changes in the composition of the internal atmosphere.
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