• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.113-120
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• 1996

This study was conducted to understand the characteristics of fruit softening during ripening which causes deep loses in quality of horticultural products during storage and marketing process after harvest. The changes of cell wall components during ripening was investigated. The climacteric rise was between 42 and 49 days after anthesis and then decreased. Ethylene evolution was similar to respiration. The hardness of fruit decreased markedly at this climacteric period and significances of textural parameters among the ripening periods were recognized but the significance between 50 and 55 days after anthesis was not. Sugar components of cell wall polysaccharides were uronic acid, galactose, glucose, arabinose, xylose, rhamnose, mannose and fucose. The contents of arabinose and mannose in alcohol-insoluble solids fraction increased, but other sugars were not changed. In cell wall fraction, the contents of uronic acid, galactose, glucose and arabinose were comparatively high, but galactose, arabinose and ironic acid were decreased markedly during ripening. ironic acid occupied above 75% of total monosaccharide in pectin fraction and decreased markedly during ripening. In acid-soluble hemicellulose fraction, the contents of uronic acid, glucose, galactose and rhamnose were high and they decreased from 50 days after anthesis. The contents of glucose and xylose were high in a alkali-soluble hemicellulose fraction and they decreased markedly at 55days after anthesis.