SPLIT RATE AND NUTS OIL COMPOSITION OF PISTACHIO DURING MATURITY PROCESS

Among factors determining pistachio nuts quality, the harvest period is an important one.
This period must be optimized according to cultivars specification.
On the other hand, the nuts oil composition is different from one cultivar to another.
It shows also a variation during the maturity process for each cultivar.
Fruit samples were taken from two pistachio collections.
The first one, “Taous” , is located in center east of Tunisia in Sfax region.
The second one, “Chenchou”, belongs to Gabes region in the south east of Tunisia.
These collections include three local female cultivars (“Mateur”, “Thyna1”, “Nouri”) and two introduced cultivars (“Mumtez”, “Ohadi”). The fruit maturity process was followed during two months.
For this aim, the fruit shelling percentages and the fruit oil composition were studied.
Thus, the results showed differences between the cultivars.
In fact, “Mumtez” and “Nouri” are the earliest cultivars and “Ohadi” is the latest one. “Mumtez” has the higher split fruit rates.
Concerning oil composition, Mateur, Thyna1 and Mumtez have the best oil quality according to fatty acid composition with the lowest rate of linoleic acid.

IV International Symposium on Pistachios and Almonds

F. Zribi, M. Ben Mimoun, M. Ghrab, M. Ayadi, M.B. Salah

pistachio, cultivars, maturity process, split rate, oil composition

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2006.726.89