title: Determination of optimum harvest maturity and physico-chemical quality of Rastali banana (Musa AAB Rastali) during fruit ripening.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A series of physico-chemical quality (peel and pulp colours, pulp firmness, fruit pH, sugars and acids content, respiration rate and ethylene production) were conducted to study the optimum harvest periods (either week 11 or week 12 after emergence of the first hand) of Rastali banana (Musa AAB Rastali) based on the fruit quality during ripening.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Rastali banana fruit exhibited a climacteric rise with the peaks of both CO(2) and ethylene production occurring simultaneously at day 3 after ripening was initiated and declined at day 5 when fruits entered the senescence stage. De-greening was observed in both of the harvesting weeks with peel turned from green to yellow, tissue softening, and fruits became more acidic and sweeter as ripening progressed. Sucrose, fructose and glucose were the main sugars found while malic, citric and succinic acids were the main organic acids found in the fruit.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Rastali banana harvested at weeks 11 and 12 can be considered as commercial harvest period when the fruits have developed good organoleptic and quality attributes during ripening. However, Rastali banana fruit at more mature stage of harvest maturity taste slightly sweeter and softer with higher ethylene production which also means the fruits may undergo senescence faster than fruit harvested at week 11.
authors.affiliation: Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, DE Malaysia.
authors.forename: Tee Yei
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Kheng
authors.forename: Phebe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Nor Aini
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Abdul Rahman
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000378:metabolism*; D002264:Carboxylic Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D016922:Cellular Senescence; D003116:Color; D019422:Dietary Sucrose / Q000378:metabolism*; D005030:Ethylenes / Q000378:metabolism*; D005638:Fruit / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D028521:Musa / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D013649:Taste
chemical_list: D002264:Carboxylic Acids; D019422:Dietary Sucrose; D005030:Ethylenes; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; C036216:ethylene