THE EFFECT OF DEASTRINGENCY TREATMENTS ON INCREASING THE MARKETABILITY OF PERSIMMON FRUIT

Iranian persimmons are of the astringent type and harvested at overripe stage for the natural disappearance of the astringent taste and are then delivered to the market as commercial fruits. In this study persimmon fruits ‘Karaj’ were harvested at mature stage and their astringency was removed by different ethanol and CO₂ treatments. According to the panel test results, treated fruits by CO₂ and ethanol were better than commercial and non treated fruits. There was no significant difference between commercial and non treated fruits in this experiment. High correlation was observed between astringent taste and soluble tannin content measured with the Folin Denis method. Consumers preferred fruits with moderate firmness but not the fruit with high or low firmness. Therefore, removal of astringency of persimmon by different treatments has led to increased marketability of persimmons.