PHYSICO-CHEMICAL QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF 'RASTALI' BANANA (MUSA AAB) HARVESTED AT TWO MATURITY STAGES

P. Ding, Y.K. Tee
‘Rastali’ banana (Musa AAB) is one of the favourite dessert bananas in Malaysia. It is a climacteric fruit where mature green banana can be initiated to ripening using exogenous ethylene gas. In postharvest, different maturity stages at harvest may affect the fruit characteristics after ripening. Therefore a study was carried out to determine physico-chemical quality characteristics of ‘Rastali’ banana harvested at 11 and 12 weeks after first hand emergence. Fruit bunches were tagged when first hand (basal fruit at the top) emerged and was considered as day 1 (D1). Banana bunches were harvested when the fruit reached maturity at week 11 (D77) and week 12 (D84). Six hands within a bunch of ‘Rastali’ banana were used in this study and hands were numbered from the top to the bottom (hand 1: basal fruit at the top; hand 6: distal hand at the bottom). Three fingers from either the upper or lower whorls of each hand were selected randomly as sub-samples for each ripening days (six hands × three fingers × four ripening days = 72 fingers per tree). The experimental design was a randomised complete block design. Results showed that there were significant interaction between harvesting week × days after ripening in peel and pulp h° values, firmness and ethylene production. ‘Rastali’ banana harvested at week 11 showed significantly higher h° values in banana peel colour on ripening days 0, 3 and 5 as compared to week 12 fruit. At day 5 after ripening initiation, banana fruit harvested at week 11 had higher pulp h° values than week 12 fruit. Banana pulp harvested at week 12 was significantly softer than fruit harvested at week 11 on days 0 and 1 after ripening. ‘Rastali’ banana harvested at week 12 showed significantly higher ethylene production than banana harvested at week 11 at days 3 and 5 after ripening. It can be concluded that ‘Rastali’ banana harvested at week 12 ripened and reached the senescence stage faster than banana at week 11.
Ding, P. and Tee, Y.K. (2013). PHYSICO-CHEMICAL QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF 'RASTALI' BANANA (MUSA AAB) HARVESTED AT TWO MATURITY STAGES . Acta Hortic. 1012, 183-191
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2013.1012.19
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2013.1012.19
colour, firmness, soluble solids concentration, respiration rate, ethylene production
English
1012_19
183-191

Acta Horticulturae