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Mango (Mangifera indica L.), the national fruit of India is nutritionally rich in
carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals such as calcium, iron, and phosphorus
and hence known as the “King of fruits”. Mangoes are popular in markets worldwide
because of unique flavour, appealing aroma, colour and taste (Arauz, 2000). In Indian
subcontinent flowering of mango starts from November in Kerala and extends to
February – March in Northern India. Mangoes from Kerala fetch higher price in the
main markets at other parts of the country due to earliness. But commercial
cultivation of mango in Kerala is limited to a few pockets in Palakkad district and the
national varieties such as Alphonso, Banganapalli, Amrapali, Ratna and Mallika are
occasional. The adaptation of different varieties to the climatic conditions prevailing
fruiting and yielding behaviour of the varieties, production and post-harvest
management practices followed by the growers, prevailing marketing system, are
some of the problems of mango cultivation in Kerala.
Mango fruits gain acceptance and popularity among consumers when it is
served with the correct ripeness. Mangoes harvested at full maturity had a shorter
shelf life, but those harvested early had a higher weight loss but improved storability
(Shahjahan et al., 1994). Maturity standards in relation to the quality of important
commercial varieties have not been studied when grown under humid tropical
conditions of Kerala. Hence a study on the “Determination of optimum maturity stage
in mango (Mangifera indica L.) for fruit quality” was carried out at the Department of
Post-Harvest Technology, College of Agriculture, Vellanikkara, Thrissur, Kerala
during 2019- 21 with the objective to find out the ideal harvesting stage of two
important mango varieties viz. Ratna and Mallika for good organoleptic qualities and
shelf life.
The varieties of mango grown in the college orchard were utilized for the
study. Flowers were tagged at the time of fruit set and observations on external
appearance, peel, pulp colour, stone characters and biochemical changes were taken at
90, 100,110 120 and 140 days after fruit set (DAFS) as per the IPGRI descriptor. Heat
unit requirements for maturity were also studied, for determining optimum days for
maturity. In case of mango cv. Ratna, 90, 100 and 110 DAFS are the three stages of
growth and in cv. Mallika, 90, 110,120 and 140 DAFS are four stages of growth.
Physical and biochemical characters were studied at different stages of growth. In
mango cv. Ratna fruits harvested 110 DAFS with accumulation of 1107.75 HU
recorded good quality attributes. Fruits harvested at this stage had attractive length
(10.44 cm), diameter (26.1 cm), weight (358.8 g), firmness (1.40 kg/cm2
), specific
gravity (1.03), stone length (7.49 cm), stone weight (10.68 g), TSS (21.12 ⁰brix),
acidity (0.30 %), ascorbic acid (33.48 mg/100g), total sugar (19.04 %), total phenol
(32.06 mg/100g), total carotenoid (14.65 mg/100g), β-carotene (0.88 mg/100g), crude
fibre (2.59 %) and total chlorophyll (0.01 mg/100g) with a score of 8.00 in overall
acceptability in sensory evaluation.
In mango cv. Mallika fruits harvested 140 DAFS with accumulation of
1507.00 HU was found to be good in quality attributes. Fruits harvested 140 DAFS
had good length (14.80 cm), diameter (28.03 cm), weight (623.95 g), firmness (0.73
kg/cm2
), specific gravity (1.05), stone length (11.83 cm), stone diameter (12.63 cm),
stone weight (66.73 g), TSS (20.18 ⁰brix), acidity (0.73%), ascorbic acid (61.21
mg/100g), total sugar (17.00 %), total phenol (47.5 mg/100g), total carotenoid (7.56
mg/100g), β-carotene (0.03 mg/100g), crude fibre (3.44 %) and total chlorophyll
(0.01 mg/100g) with a score of 8.25 in overall acceptability in sensory evaluation.
Study on effect of maturity on ripening was done in the variety cv. Ratna at
their mature stage. Fruits harvested at the optimum maturity stage (100 DAFS) and
ten days prior to maturity stage (90 DAFS) were kept for ripening after giving five
different pre-treatments, viz., control (T1), ethrel spray (T2), hot water dip with ethrel
spray (T3), sanitization with ethrel spray (T4) and ozonisation with ethrel spray (T5).
Treated fruits packed in ventilated CFB boxes were kept under ambient condition and
observations were recorded at 3 days interval. PLW increased with increase in storage
period resulted in decrease in shelf life because of more loss in weight but the TSS
and sugar increased however storability was less. High ethylene evolution on 3 days
after storage indicates that it is tending towards maturity and it lowers after 6 days of
storage resulting in complete ripened stage. Thus it can be concluded that the fruits of
mango cv. Ratna harvested 10 and 20 days prior to ripe mature stage can be stored for
6 days under ambient conditions after giving pre-treatment consisting of Ozonization
@ 200 ppm and ethrel spray @ 200 ppm.