Scientia Horticulturae 134 (2012) 245247

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Scientia Horticulturae
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Short communication

Effect of air temperature on rind colour development in pomegranates

F.J. Manera b , P. Legua a , P. Melgarejo a , R. Martnez a, , J.J. Martnez a , Fca. Hernndez a
a b

Plant Science and Microbiology Department, Universitas Miguel Hernandez, Ctra Beniel 3.2, 03312 Orihuela (Alicante), Spain Physics and Computer Architecture Department, Universitas Miguel Hernandez, Ctra Beniel 3.2, 03312 Orihuela (Alicante), Spain

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
The colour quality of many fresh and processed fruits may inuence consumer acceptance. Pomegranate acceptability depends on a combination of quality attributes related to physicalchemical and mechanical properties such as rind colour, sugar content, acidity, and avour. This study was undertaken to investigate any correlation between the rind colour of pomegranates and the environmental temperature, as well as to study the evolution of colour parameters with the environmental temperature. The results conrmed a strong correlation between the colorimetric coordinates (L*, a*, b*, C* and h ), measured during ab fruit development and maturation, and the maximum, mean and minimum temperatures. A high correlation coefcient of 0.9 indicated the signicant effect of air temperature on rind colour development. 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 1 August 2011 Received in revised form 9 November 2011 Accepted 17 November 2011 Keywords: Colour coordinates C* and h ab Pomegranate rind Temperature

1. Introduction Spain produces about 40,000 t per year of pomegranates (Punica granatum L.). Several studies conrmed the excellent organoleptic and nutritional properties of pomegranates (Al-Said et al., 2009; He et al., 2010; Ozgen et al., 2008; Shwartz et al., 2009). Moreover, the traditional importance of pomegranate fruit as a medicinal plant is currently the subject of renewed research because of its anti-carcinogenic, anti-microbial and anti-viral properties (Al-Maiman and Ahnad, 2002; Bell and Hawthorne, 2008; Kotwal, 2007; Reddy et al., 2007). Although knowledge about the importance of pomegranate in human nutrition has tremendously increased in recent years, the external colour of the fruit has not been studied in detail. Pomegranate maturity status is commonly assessed based on rind and juice colour and acidity (Cristosto et al., 2000). Pomegranate acceptability by consumers and processors depends basically on a combination of several quality attributes as rind colour, sugar content, acidity, and avour (Al-Said et al., 2009). Some researchers studied the correlation between rind colour parameters (L*, a*, b*, C* and h ) and acidity, total soluble ab solids, citric acid and anthocyanin content (Dafny-Yalin et al., 2010). Yet no literature was available regarding the potential effect of air temperature on pomegranate rind colour development. Therefore, the current study focused on investigating any possible correlation between pomegranate rind colour parameters and the air

temperature. How those colour coordinates developed as air temperature uctuated. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Plant material The pomegranate cultivar chosen for this study was the ME-15 accession (Mollar de Elche 15). The cultivar was selected according to four main criteria: sweetness, soft-seeded, large fruit size and high yields. The commercial variety ME-15 was selected from the population cultivar Mollar de Elche (ME), which is one of the most highly valued worldwide because of its outstanding avour and high antioxidant, vitamin and mineral contents. The selected plant material belonged to the main pomegranate gene bank of the EU, located at the experimental eld station of Miguel Hernndez University in the province of Alicante, Spain (02 03 50 E, 38 03 50 N, and 25 masl). The orchard was established in 1992. Pomegranate trees were trained to the vase-shaped system and planted at a spacing of 4 m 3 m. They were drip irrigated, and standard cultural practices were performed (pruning, thinning, fertilisation and pest control treatments). 2.2. Experimental design Two pomegranate trees were randomly selected for fruit harvesting. Pomegranates were collected from all tree sides at midheight (3 fruits per tree side); that is a total of 12 pomegranates per tree. Six colour measurements per fruit were taken along the 360 equatorial perimeter, given a total of 144 measurements

Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 966749644; fax: +34 966749693. E-mail address: rafa.font@umh.es (R. Martnez). 0304-4238/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.scienta.2011.11.016

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F.J. Manera et al. / Scientia Horticulturae 134 (2012) 245247

40
33.7C

35 30 25

Values of C* and hue*

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 June 2nd week June 3rd week June 4th week Aug 2nd week July 2nd week Aug 3rd week July 3rd week Sept 2nd week Sept 3rd week July 4th week Aug 4th week Sept 1st week Sept 4th week Oct 2nd week July 1st week Aug 1st week Oct 3rd week Oct 1st week
20.8C 27.2C

20 15 10 5 0

C*

hue*

T max

T min

T mean

Fig. 1. Chroma (C*) and hue angle (h*) evolution of pomegranate rind and temperature response curve for the 2-year study.

(12 pomegranates/tree 6 measurements/pomegranate 2 trees). Rind colour evaluations were weekly assessed from phenological stage I (young fruit in the rst half of June) to stage L (harvest in the third week of October) (Melgarejo et al., 1996). The experiment was conducted for two consecutive harvesting seasons (20082009). The correlations among the colorimetric variables (L*, a*, b*, C* and h ) and the minimum, maximum and mean temperatures ab were studied along with the temperature response curve (Table 2). Every temperature used for establishing these potential correlations was the mean value of the temperatures referring to the 45 days prior the day measurements were made (data not shown). The temperature response curve (TI) was calculated from anthesis at mid-May (phenological stage F) to full maturation in late October (phenological stage L) using a base temperature for pomegranate of 9 C (Melgarejo et al., 1996). The correlation among the colorimetric variable a* and the maximum, minimum and mean temperatures was established using only the data interval onset from a* > 0 (red colour). The same criterion was followed for the L* coordinate, coinciding with the interval in which L* values were the highest (maximal brightness of fruit rind). For coordinate b*, the timing for assessment ran from the second half of June to the rst week of August, coinciding with the rst half of the cell enlargement phase of fruits.

2.3. Determination of fruit colour Colour measurements were performed using a Minolta colorimeter (CR-300, Minolta Ramsey, N.J., USA). Colour was assessed according to the Commission Internationale de l clairage (CIE) and h colour values. The coorand expressed as L*, a*, b*, Cab ab dinates L*, a* and b* indicate the lightness of the colour (L* = 0 and L* = 100 represent black and white, respectively), its position between green and red (negative and positive a* values indicate greenness and redness, respectively) and between blue and yellow (negative and positive b* values point towards blueness and value (chroma, a2 + b2 ) denes yellowness, respectively). The Cab colour saturation and the hue angle (h ) colour shadiness (arctan ab b*/a*; where 0 = red-purple, 90 = yellow, 180 = bluish-green and 270 = blue). As suggested by McGuire (1992), the hue angle and chroma are accepted as the more intuitively and understandable colour variables. 2.4. Statistical analysis Statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS 16.0 software package for Windows. Descriptive statistics were used to process and analyse all collected data. The Pearson correlation

Table 1 Pomegranate rind colour coordinates and temperatures for the 2-year study. Dates June 2nd week June 3rd week June 4th week July 1st week July 2nd week July 3rd week July 4th week Aug 1st week Aug 2nd week Aug 3rd week Aug 4th week Sept 1st week Sept 2nd week Sept 3rd week Sept 4th week Oct 1st week Oct 2nd week Oct 3rd week L* 56.4 56.6 56.9 56.8 58.6 60.2 61.5 63.4 65.4 68.4 70.4 72.4 76.1 74.1 72.0 69.3 68.2 65.8 a* 19.8 20.8 20.5 20.1 19.3 18.4 16.6 14.9 14.9 12.2 9.0 6.0 0.4 5.5 9.6 12.3 13.9 12.7 b* 42.0 42.8 43.0 43.7 44.3 44.6 46.3 48.1 48.5 49.5 48.8 49.5 50.7 49.8 47.7 45.8 44.0 42.4 C* 46.5 47.6 47.6 48.1 48.3 48.3 49.2 48.6 50.6 51.3 49.7 50.5 49.9 49.7 49.3 47.5 46.4 44.4 hue 115.3 115.9 115.5 114.7 113.6 112.4 109.7 107.9 107.2 103.8 100.5 96.9 89.6 83.7 78.8 75.0 72.6 73.5 Tmax 27.1 28.0 29.2 30.4 29.8 32.3 32.8 33.5 33.7 33.6 33.8 33.5 33.7 33.2 32.5 30.9 30.0 28.3 Tmin 14.5 15.4 16.2 17.2 18.0 18.8 19.6 20.1 20.7 20.9 20.8 20.8 20.8 20.4 19.7 18.7 17.6 16.4 Tmean 20.8 21.7 22.7 23.8 24.6 25.5 26.2 26.8 27.2 27.3 27.3 27.2 27.2 26.8 26.1 24.8 23.8 22.9 TI 383.0 487.5 612.1 731.1 860.7 984.8 1118.5 1243.3 1373.8 1498.7 1628.8 1761.5 1946.3 2049.9 2147.9 2256.3 2367.8 2478.7

T (C)

F.J. Manera et al. / Scientia Horticulturae 134 (2012) 245247 Table 2 Pearsons correlation coefcients (95% LSD) for colour variables and air temperatures for the 2-year study. Colour coordinate L* a* b* C* h ab Tmax 0.9826 0.9633 0.9736 0.9815 0.9534 Tmin 0.9662 0.9767 0.9643 0.9849 0.9374 Tmean 0.9839 0.9699 0.9619 0.9723 0.9472 TI 0.9674 0.9682 0.9903 0.9677 0.9682

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coefcients (95% LSD) were determined among the colorimetric variables and the air temperature. 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Evolution of the colour parameter L* The coordinate L* increased constantly from phenological stage I (young fruit), reaching a maximum during the second week of September (76.1) when top temperatures were recorded (Fig. 1). Afterwards, the L* values dropped constantly until harvest in late October (Table 1) as previously reported by Shwartz et al. (2009). 3.2. Evolution of the colour coordinate a* The colorimetric coordinate a* showed negative values (greenish) until the second week of September, when rind colour turned from green to red (positive values) and coinciding with top temperatures records and the maximum value of L* (Table 1). From then onwards, while coordinate a* gradually increased (redness), the L* values constantly decreased; the highest values of a* were reached between the rst and second week of October (Table 1). During this period the green colour of pomegranate rind was increasingly replaced by the red one. Similar results were found for Mollar pomegranate accessions (Gil et al., 1995) and for two Israelian cultivars (Shwartz et al., 2009). 3.3. Evolution of the colorimetric coordinate b* The colorimetric coordinate b* exhibited high and positive values during the periods of fruit development and ripening (Table 1). The b* values of pomegranate rind signicantly fell from the second week of September onward, indicating that blue pigments were replacing the yellow colour during fruit maturation. The results for coordinate b* completely agreed with those found by Shwartz et al. (2009). 3.4. Correlation between pomegranate rind colour and air temperature Table 2 showed the Pearson correlation coefcients (95% LSD) for the colorimetric variables (L*, a*, b*, C* and h ) and the air ab temperature. The colour coordinates of pomegranate rind were signicantly correlated with the air temperature for the 2-year study. Values of r > 0.9 indicated that temperature denitively inuenced pomegranate rind colour evolution. ) 3.5. Evolution of the saturation index (C*) and hue angle (h ab Fig. 1 showed the evolution of the saturation index C* (chroma) and the hue angle (h ), which indicates the quadrant of the colour ab

greater approximately the second week of September. Values of h ab than 90 were observed from phenological stage I (115.3 ) to the rst week of September (96.9 ), when the coordinate a* became positive (Table 1). Pomegranate rind revealed greener tones at the beginning of fruit development. The Chroma index and the hue angle together showed exactly when pomegranate rind colour turned from green to red, which was corroborated by the evolution of coordinate a*. The Chroma index evolution of pomegranate rind remained fairly steady during fruit development and ripening since there was a trade-off among the values of coordinates a* and b*. The graphical representation of the hue angle showed a turning point during the second week of September, when values dropped below 90 and temperature records started dropping, coinciding with the onset of pomegranate rind colour change. As weeks go by, the hue angle gradually dipped to values of 77 , 71 and 68 , increasing rind redness as this pomegranate cultivar properly matures. 4. Conclusion The results clearly conrm that the evaluated colorimetric parameters of pomegranate rind were highly correlated with the air temperature during fruit development and ripening. All correlation coefcients were higher than 0.9 (Table 2), which indicated the signicant contribution of air temperature on rind colour development in pomegranates. Between the rst and second week of September pomegranate rind colour turned from green to red (a* 0) with temperature records of 34 C, 27 C and 21 C (the maximum, mean and minimum values, respectively). From then onwards to fruit ripening (rst half of October), redness gradually increased (a* > 0) while b* and L* progressively dropped. References
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diagram and the angle with respect to the axis of coordinate a* on where the values laid. The C* values were always positive and did not exactly indicate the point of rind colour evolution when data were recorded. Fig. 1 also showed how C* steadily increased until