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Inhibition of the ripening of banana 'Prata-Anã' by 1-methylcyclopropene

Banana, Musa spp., is one of the most consumed fruits around the world, and it is cultivated in most of tropical countries. Often postharvest practices are not good enough to guarantee the quality of the fruits mainly if they are to be commercialized at distant markets. The 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) is known as a blocking of ethylene action and it has been successfully used in flowers, vegetables and fruits. The aim of this work was to delay the ripening of banana-'Prata' increasing its shelf life. Fruits of Banana -'Prata anã' were used from Janaúba, north of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The fruits were harvest at the maturation stage 1, which corresponds to the unripe and classified as "extra" selected and separated in parcels of 10 fruits each one. It was used 3 replications for each planned treatment. The 1-Methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) were used at four concentrations: 0 (reference), 10, 30 and 90 ppb. The 1-MCP used is a powder containing 0,14% of the active ingredient. The fruits were stored at room temperature (24ºC and 78.5% RH) and analyzed at 0, 4, 8 and 12 days after the application of the product. The following characteristics were evaluated: development of the color, separation of the bananas from the bunch, firmness, soluble solids content, titratable acidity and pH. By adding 30 ppb and 90ppb the ripening was delayed for 4 and 8 days, respectively. This technique comes as an alternative to improve the shelf life of the fruits of this cultivar.

1-metycyclopropene; maturation blocking; physicochemical changes


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