Papaya, Mango and Guava Fruit Metabolism during Ripening: Postharvest Changes Affecting Tropical Fruit Nutritional Content and Quality

摘要

The ripening process affects the nutritional content and quality of climacteric fruits. During papaya ripening, papayas become more acceptable due to pulp sweetness, redness and softness, with an increment of carotenoids. Mangoes increase the strong aroma, sweetness and vitamin C, P-carotene and minerals levels during ripening. Ripe guavas have one of the highest levels of vitamin C and minerals compared to other tropical fleshy fiuits. Although during these fleshy fhiit ripening an increase in nutritional value and physical-chemical quality is observed, these changes could lead to a reduced shelf-life. In order to minimize postharvest losses, some techniques have been used such as cold storage and 1-MCP treatment. The techniques are far from beingstandardized, but some interesting results have been achieved for papayas, mangoes and guavas. Therefore, this review focuses on the main changes occurring during ripening of these three tropical fhiits that lead to an increment of quality attributes andnutritional values but can also cause shelf-life losses. This review also exposes some techniques used to postpone fiuit ripening in these tropical fruits.