DEVELOPMENT OF DISCOLOURATION IN MANGO LENTICELS

Cultivar dependant discolouration of mango lenticels is a well-known phenomenon.
This discolouration is often the reason export fruit are downgraded.
Tissue surrounding lenticels progressively becomes affected, but the manifestation and severity of the condition can be unpredictable.
Previous research to find and control the trigger of the condition included studies of horticultural aspects, and pre- and postharvest processes.
However, with no satisfactory solution apparent, a study of the lenticel morphology and its related chemistry, and the epicuticular wax were undertaken.
Three commercially important cultivars from South Africa, ‘Keitt’, ‘Kent’ and ‘Tommy Atkins’, each with a distinctly different level of affliction were used in this study.
From the combined results of high performance liquid chromatography and microscopy, several new aspects were elucidated.
Cultivars have a structural relationship to discolouration, while chemical profiling and ultrastructural studies of lenticels pointed towards physiological irritation as the stimulus for the development of the condition.

VIII International Mango Symposium

W. du Plooy, S. Combrinck, B. Botha, C. van der Merwe, T. Regnier

Mangifera indica, lenticel discolouration, phenolics, morphology, epicuticular wax, electron microscopy

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2009.820.82