Vol. 74 No: 3

Title:
Postharvest conditioning temperatures and fruit maturity on flavedo soluble sugars of coastal and desert lemons

Authors:
L.H. AUNG, J.F. JENNER, D.C. FOUSE and L.G. HOUCK

pp: 288-292

Abstract:
The content and changes in flavedo soluble sugars of Citrus limon (L.) Burm. F. of different maturity derived from coastal and desert climatic regions to two postharvest conditioning temperatures of 15°C and 10°C were determined. Conditioning caused significant changes of flavedo soluble sugars in lemons of the two geographic areas. Raffinose level increased with duration of conditioning in both desert and coastal lemons and was slightly higher at 10°C than at 15°C conditioning. The flavedo sucrose content of green coastal lemons was greater than silver or yellow lemons and increased significantly in silver and yellow lemons after conditioning for 3 d at 15°C or 10°C, but declined significantly in all maturity classes to a low level with conditioning of more than 3 d. In contrast, the flavedo sucrose content of green and yellow desert lemons was 2.8-fold and 1.7-fold greater, respectively, than comparable coastal lemon flavedo, with the green lemon flavedo showing a significant gradual decrease with increasing duration of conditioning at 15°C and 10°C, but not in yellow lemon flavedo. The flavedo glucose and fructose contents of desert lemons remained relatively unchanged with conditioning at 15°C and 10°C, but their contents in yellow, silver and green coastal lemon flavedo increased after prolonged conditioning. The flavedo fructose content of yellow coastal lemons was significantly greater than green lemons, but there was no difference in flavedo fructose content of green and yellow desert lemons. The observed alteration of flavedo soluble sugars associated with conditioning provided an insight of cellular response to temperature, and emphasized the importance of climatic origin on lemon flavedo sugar composition.

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