Feasibility of Determining the Ripeness of Strawberry Fruit Flesh by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy

Fourier transform - infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) provides biochemical profiles containing overlapping signals from a majority of the compounds that are present when whole cell extracts are analyzed. We attempted to determine the ripeness of strawberry fruit flesh by FT-IR. Fruit ripeness was divided into four developmental stages based on fruit skin color: 'yellow-green', 'pink-green', 'pink', and 'red' stages. Principal component analysis of FT-IR data of inside fruit flesh extracts clustered samples of four different developmental stages into three discrete groups: (1) 'yellow-green' group, (2) 'pink-green' group, and (3) 'pink' and 'red' group. The most remarkable difference between four different developmental stages was found in the carbohydrate fingerprint region $(1,000-1,100cm^{-1})$ of the FT-IR spectrum, indicating that differences in carbohydrate compounds represented the ripeness of strawberry fruit. Overall results indicate that FT-IR in combination with PCA enables discrimination of the ripeness of strawberry fruit flesh.

Fourier 변환 적외선 분광분석법에 의한 딸기 과육의 성숙도 측정 가능성