ABSTRACT
This research aimed to study the influence of maturation on the quality of ‘Kumagai’ and ‘Paluma’ guavas. Healthy fruits of both cultivars harvested at five maturity stages defined on the basis of skin color, were selected for the absence of mechanical damage and rot and stored under environmental conditions (25±1ºC and 85±5% RH). They were evaluated at the time of harvest and after reaching full maturity as the shelf-life, skin color, pulp firmness, ascorbic acid, soluble solids (SS) and titratable acidity (TA), as well as the SS/TA ratio and the flavor. The results indicated that cv. Kumagai guavas have longer conservation (6.8 days on average) than ‘Paluma’ (3.2 days on average) and that this period is influenced by ripening stage. Regardless of cultivar, guavas harvested in early stages of maturation kept more acid (0.71%) than that those harvested later (0.57%), with the aggravating circumstance that in cv. Kumagai, the harvest in stage 1, resulted in retention of the green color of the skin. The harvest of guava in early stages despite prolonging the shelf-life implies inferior fruit quality. On the other hand, the harvest in more advanced stages of maturation makes necessary the implementation of appropriate conservation techniques to the intrinsic characteristics of each variety, in order to ensure the quality of the fruit offered to the consumer.
Psidium guajava; ripening; conservation; cultivars
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