Respiration Properties of Tree-ripe Mango Fruit under CA Condition

Abstract

Tree-ripe 'Irwin' mango fruit grown under the green houses in Japan have excellent quality. Unfortunately, their harvesting period is very limited and storability is very less. Therefore, a method for preserving the fruit quality is highly needed. Temperature and the gas composition are the most important factors affecting the rate of respiration and ultimately the fruit quality attributes. Respiration rate is the necessary parameter for designing the storage conditions. In the present investigation, the effects of storage temperature (5, 15, 25°C) and gas composition on the O2 consumption and the CO2 production have been studied by using the flow through system. The ratios of the respiration rate under controlled atmosphere conditions (1.6 to 20.7% O2, 0. 2 to 10.2% CO2, balanced with N2) were calculated against the values under normal air condition. The results obtained on the respiration rate and the respiration quotient suggest that low temperature in combination with CA gas composition of carbon dioxide around 10% will be effective to suppress the respiration rate of tree-ripe 'Irwin' mango fruit, and oxygen should be higher than 5 % to avoid the anaerobic respiration.