Developmental dynamics in chemical composition during fruit ripening of pomegranate

Interpretation:The present study was undertaken to investigate the influence of pomegranate fruit developmental and maturity stages on the major chemical composition of pomegranate juice to identify the appropriate time of maturity of pomegranate cv."Mridula".Fresh fruits of eight-year-old plants of pomegranate cv.'Mridula' were picked manually in the morning at different developments stages, viz., 30 to 150 DAFB at ten day interval.Harvested fruits were analysed for physico-chemical analysis.Pomegranate arils juice showed a significant (p<0.05)increase in sugars and soluble solids content during fruit development.However, titratable acidity and total phenolics of aril juice decreased with advancement of fruit maturity.There was 11.32 times increase in Vitamin C content of juice during fruit development, whereas about 2.38 fold decrease in juice acidity was recorded.The reducing sugars content in aril juice was about 76.35 % -81.93 % of total sugars.There was overall depletion of total phenolics content during course of fruit development.The results revealed that soluble solids content, SSC/TA ratio, juice pH, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars, total sugars and Vitamin C of juice was abundant between 140-150 days after full bloom (DAFB).Whereas, TA and TP declined and reached minimum between 140-150 DAFB.SSC/TA ratio showed positive correlation with pH, sugars and Vitamin C, but negatively correlated with TA and TP.The principal components analysis showed that full ripened fruit at 140-150 DAFB recorded higher positive score along component 1 and indicate optimum time of fruit harvest.In recent years, the search for a easy, reliable and simple determination of maturation has employed the a t t e n t i o n o f c o u n t l e s s pomegranate growers in d i f f e r e n t p o m e g r a n a t e production regions.The change in the chemical profile of pomegranate from 30 DAFB to 150 DAFB of arils juice clearly e x p l a i n e d t h e i r g r o w t h , development and maturity stages.This information would help pomegranate growers to access the maturity of 'Mridula' cultivars of pomegranate.