Abstract

BALAGUERA, Helber Enrique; ALVAREZ, Javier Giovanni  and  BONILLA, Diana Carolina. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF CHAMPA FRUIT (Campomanesia lineatifolia Ruiz & Pavon). rev.udcaactual.divulg.cient. [online]. 2009, vol.12, n.2, pp.113-123. ISSN 0123-4226.

The champa is a fruit tree, which belongs to the family Myrtaceae. Its fruit is a small berry, highly perishable of delicious flavour, well accepted by consumers. However, research regarding this fruit is hardly any and, besides, the physicochemical behaviour during fruit growth and development, to establish the adequate management to avoid fruit loss, has not been determined. Fruits of the middle third part of champa trees were selected and every 15 days, from its formation on, physical and chemical parameters of the fruits were measured. It was determined that from flowering to harvest the fruit takes 160 days. Furthermore, the accumulation of fresh and dry mass followed a simple sigmoidal curve. Once the fruit grew and developed, the fresh and dry mass, the total soluble solids (TSS), pH and the maturity ratio (MR) increased, while the total titratable acidity (TTA) and the firmness decreased. The fruit is quite acid, but has a high TSS content, which makes that it has a potential use in industrial fruit juice processing and its acceptance by the consumer can be positive. The fruit firmness at harvest is very low, limiting the market for fresh and post-harvest life of champa fruit.

Keywords : Perennial crop; Myrtaceae; tropical fruits; perishable; juice.

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