POSTHARVEST BEHAVIOR OF NATIVE PINEAPPLE FRUIT AND ‘GOLDEN MD-2’ (ANANAS COMOSUS) DURING LOW TEMPERATURE STORAGE

Pineapple is originated from tropical forest.
Besides the cultivated cultivars sold worldwide, some native cultivars are well appreciated for their flavor and sweetness and their marketing is growing around the world and in Colombian markets.
The nutritional values of cultivars of the Amazonian forestry are less known and remain unexploited.
To increase our knowledge of such cultivars, the physiolog-ical behavior of the ‘Amazonica’ native pineapple cultivar from Vaupes (Colombia) and the ‘Golden-MD2’ were irrespectively studied under low temperature storage.
Fruit were harvested at half mature stage and stored at 4, 8 and 20°C for 20 days.
Both pineapple cultivars showed a non-climacteric ripening pattern with low levels of respiration rate throughout storage irrespective of the temperature tested.
Levels of respiration rate at 20°C of ‘Amazonica’ were higher than in ‘Golden-MD2’. At 4°C, fruit from both cultivars suffered from flesh softening, shriveling and mesocarp darkening (a symptom of chilling injury), particularly ‘Amazonica’. Decay was particularly noticeable after storage at 4°C in ‘Amazonica’. When compared with storage at 20°C, the fruit at 8°C showed reduced sucrose content and ascorbic acid losses without compromising normal fruit ripening during a post-storage shelf-life at 20°C, particularly in ‘Amazonica’. The storage of native pineapple fruit at 8°C is recommended because better fruit quality was retained at this temperature by preventing chilling injury and decay.

XXVIII International Horticultural Congress on Science and Horticulture for People (IHC2010): International Symposium on Postharvest Technology in the Global Market

L.N. Sánchez, C.A. Díaz , A.O. Herrera, M.D. Gómez López , J.P. Fernández-Trujillo, M.S. Hernández

Amazonian region, tropical fruit, chilling injury, fruit quality, storage temperature

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2012.934.108