Ripening of banana fruit monitored by water relaxation and diffusion 1H-NMR measurements

• Published in: Food chemistry Vol. 89; no. 1; pp. 149 - 158
• Main Authors: Raffo, Antonio, Gianferri, Raffaella, Barbieri, Renato, Brosio, Elvino
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 2005; Elsevier
• Subjects: bananas; Biological and medical sciences; diffusion; food analysis; Food industries; Fruit and vegetable industries; fruit quality; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy; postharvest physiology; ripening; starch; sugars; water; water relaxation; Water; Ripening; Measurement; Relaxation; Monocotyledones; Musa; Fruit; Angiospermae; Musaceae; Spermatophyta; Diffusion; Banana
• ISSN: 0308-8146; 1873-7072
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2004.02.024

Water transverse relaxation times T 2 and self-diffusion coefficients D have been measured on banana samples at different ripening stages. Relaxation data have been interpreted on the basis of a chemical and diffusive exchange model proposed by Belton and Hills [Mol. Phys. 61(4) (1987) 999] and Hills et al. [Mol. Phys. 67(4) (1989) 903]. According to that model the observed increase of T 2 values of both cytoplasmatic and vacuolar water may be mainly attributed to the decrease of starch concentration during the ripening process. On the other hand, the observed water self-diffusion coefficient decrease is related to sugar accumulation as starch hydrolysis proceeds. At the early stages of ripening, the individual self-diffusion coefficient values of cytoplasmatic and vacuolar water differ from one another and have been calculated through the analysis of relaxation time-separated pulsed field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance experiments [J. Magn. Reson. A 112 (1995a) 237].