Phyto-chemical characters of kiwi fruit(Actinidia chinesis)var.Allison affected by different stages of growth

Abstract

Kiwi fruit is gaining popularity in the Himalayan states including Uttarakhand. A few varieties of this fruit are performing well in mid hills of Kumaon region. The effect of different stages of harvest on various phyto-chemical characters including ascorbic acid, total carotenoid, antioxidants and sugar content was studied in Kiwi fruit var. Allison. The investigation was carried out at different harvest dates after two months of fruit set. The anthesis of female flowers started from 14 May 2014 and 100% flowering was recorded on 23 May 2014. The number of female flowers/tree was recorded in a range of 346–2952. In the male plants (Tomuri) of Kiwi, 90–1176 flowers/tree were recorded which increased the fruit set of Kiwi fruit. The fruits took 150 days to mature on the basis of flower anthesis to harvesting. The physical parameters viz., fruit length (46.30 mm to 61.06 mm), fruit breadth (31.26 mm to 64.70 mm) and fruit weight (29.56 g to 153.08 g) gradually increased with the fruit development. The bio-constituents like reducing sugars (0.7%-1.76%), non-reducing sugars (1.38%-5.15%) and total sugars (2.09%-6.91%) were found to increase substantially but the acidity decreased from 2.53% to 1.43% with the development of fruit. Ascorbic acid contents were recorded the highest (912.5 mg/100g) in the initial stage of fruit growth which reduced significantly to 261.87mg/100g at fruit maturity. The caraotenoid content and total antioxidants in the fruits increased significantly from 11.57 to 55.54μg/100g and 0.54 to 5.48 mMTE/L respectively during the period under study. From the study it was inferred that the Kiwi fruits attain full maturity in 7 months with good phyto-chemical constituents.