SENSITIVITY OF ASTRINGENT AND NON-ASTRINGENT PERSIMMON CULTIVARS TO FLESH DISORDERS INDUCED BY MECHANICAL DAMAGE

Recently, two types of flesh disorders (browning and pinkish-bruising) induced by mechanical damage during packing operations have been described in astringent persimmon ‘Rojo Brillante’. Tannins, in their soluble and/or insoluble form, have been shown to be involved in the manifestation of both disorders.
Persimmon cultivars can be classified into two types, astringent and non-astringent cultivars, depending on the level of soluble tannins at harvest time.
The influence of persimmon type in flesh disorder sensitivity has not been studied.
The objective of this work was to evaluate the sensitivity to flesh disorders induced by mechanical damage in astringent cultivars (‘Atago’, ‘Giombo’, ‘Aizumishirazu-A’) and non-astringent cultivars (‘Cal Fuyu’, ‘Jiro’, ‘O’Gosho’). Persimmon fruits subjected or not to deastringency treatment were mechanical-packaged in order to induce mechanical damage.
Hand-packed fruit acted as control.
Soluble tannin content, acetaldehyde and ethanol production, antioxidant capacity, astringency sensory evaluation and incidence of flesh browning and pinkish-bruising were evaluated.
Our results showed that non-astringent cultivars exhibit low sensitivity to browning/pinkish-bruising by mechanical damage.
In contrast, astringent cultivars showed browning and/or pinkish-bruising depending on the level of soluble tannins.
The incidence of these disorders depends on the cultivar.

V International Conference Postharvest Unlimited

P. Novillo, A. Salvador, P. Navarro , C. Besada

browning, pinkish-bruising, soluble tannins, astringency, deastringency treatment

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2015.1079.82