Developmental Changes in Ripeness Indexes and Physico-Chemical Properties of Pomegranate Fruit During Maturity On Tree

Pomegranate acceptability by consumers and processors depends on basically on a combination of several quality attributes such as shape and size (geometrical properties), fruit mass and aril yield (gravimetrical properties), rind and aril color, sugar content, acidity and flavour. This study was conducted to investigate the physical properties (geometrical and gravimetrical properties) and some chemical properties pomegranate fruit and their arils as well as aril colour attributes at four distinct maturity stages between 88 and 143 days after full bloom (DAFB). Chemical properties such as pH, total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), dry weight content (DW) of fruit and aril were studied. Significant (P < 0.05) increase in geometrical properties (except sphericity), some gravimetrical properties (fruit mass, true volume of fruit and aril, arils mass in fruit and bulk density of aril), total soluble solids (TSS), pH and dry weight content of fruit, coupled with significant (P < 0.05) decline in true density of fruit and aril, aril porosity and titratable acidity (TA) as well as dry weight content of aril was observed along the days after full bloom (DAFB). The results also showed that differences at a 5% level of significance were found among the developmental stages in the colour of arils. Furthermore, pearson correlation was used to investigate the relationship between selected attribute associated fruit maturity of the pomegranate cultivar. Interesting significantly strong correlations were observed.