Papaya plant

The Papaya tree (Carica papaya) is a tropical fruit that originated in Mexico and South America. It was taken to the Caribbean and Southeast Asia first and then spread to India, Oceania, and Africa.

It is now grown throughout the North American tropics and other tropical regions around the world. This large, short-lived perennial plant with a single trunk can reach up to 30 feet (9 m.) at maturity. Palmate leaves are deeply lobed and over 3 feet (1 m.) in width.

The fruit of the Papaya is also called pawpaw and is eaten raw without the skin. The papaya fruit is slightly sweet, with an agreeable musky tang, low in calories and high in potassium and vitamin A. Papaya is also used in drinks, jellies, salads, desserts and is also dried and candied.

Papaya grows best in sandy, well-drained soil. Papaya trees will not survive water-logged soil for more than a day. Papaya plants grow and fruit best in areas where temperatures remain warm to hot (70°F–90°F). Root growth is best if soil temperatures remain above 60°F and slows or declines below that temperature. Papaya is very frost sensitive; temperatures below 29°F will damage and may kill the tree.

Well-cared-for plants may begin to produce flowers 4 months after planting and fruit 7 to 11 months after planting. Generally, fruit is picked when there is 1/5 to 1/3 color change in the fruit. After picking, keep at room temperature to fully ripen. A ripe papaya will be aromatic and give slightly to gentle pressure. The flesh of ripe papayas is juicy with a buttery consistency. Ripe fruit will keep 4 to 7 days in the refrigerator.
Papaya plant

Bioactive compounds in banana

Bananas are the creamy flesh and sweet fruit, with firmness, which are packaged in their yellow jackets. Bananas are one of the most consumed fruits in tropical and subtropical regions.

Free radicals may be produced continuously which cause serious diseases, like heart disease, cancer, arthritis, inflammation and aging. Antioxidants are those agents which can scavenge the free radicals and inhibit the damage caused by them. The best antioxidants found in nature so far are vitamin C, vitamin E and the carotenoids.

Banana contains antioxidants and phytochemicals such as Vitamin-C, Vitamin-E, flavonoids and β-carotene which have free radical scavenging activity. Some enzymes of banana flesh increase the antioxidant capacity.

These tropical fruits have strong ability to protect themselves from the oxidative stress caused by the intense sunshine and high temperature by increasing their antioxidant levels. They are known as a weak primary antioxidant source but a powerful secondary antioxidant source.

Carbohydrates, norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine, tryptophan, indole compounds, alkaloids, tannin, ascorbic acid, several flavonoids and related compounds (Leucocyanidin, quercetin and its 3-O-galactoside, 3-O-glucoside, and 3-O-rhamnosyl glucoside) have been isolated from the pulp of different bananas. Sterols such as β-sitosterol, campesterol, stigmasterol were isolated from the fruit, peel and plant.

Recent studies demonstrated that banana peel generally include higher phenolic compounds than that of banana pulps. It was reported carotenoids such as β-carotene, α-carotene and different xanthophylls in the range of 300–400 μg lutein equivalents/100 g. Researchers attributed antioxidant properties of banana peel to its gallocatechin content.
Bioactive compounds in banana

Ripening phase of fruit

Fruit development involves three basic phases. In fleshy fruit, it involves three distinct stages, namely:
*Fruit set (it is the development of the ovary and the initiation of the cell division)
*Fruit development
*Fruit ripening

During the third phase, fruit increases in size mainly by cell expansion. Once the fruit cells have fully expanded and the fruit matured, the ripening process ensues. Fruit ripening is accompanied by a number of biochemical events that are crucial for the sensory quality. It is the process by which fruits attain their desirable flavor, quality, color, palatable nature and other textural properties.

Fruit ripening is a complex process regulated by both genetic and epigenetic factors. It includes changes occurring in physiologically mature green fruit through the early stages of senescence and is responsible for characteristic aesthetic and/ or food quality attributes of fruit.

All biochemical and physiological changes that take place during fruit ripening are driven by the coordinated expression of fruit ripening-related genes. These genes encode enzymes that participate directly in biochemical and physiological changes.

They also encode regulatory proteins that participate in the signaling pathways, and in the transcriptional machinery that regulate gene expression and set in motion the ripening developmental program.

The seeds become mature prior to ripening. During the ripening phenomenon fruit become soft textured and firmness, accumulate soluble sugars, reduction in organic acids, alterations in pigments leading to development of characteristic color, and production of volatiles responsible strongly for flavor, aroma and to overall sensory quality of fruit.

Pigments are essential for the attractiveness of fruits, accumulating most often in the skin during the ripening process, although many climacteric fruits accumulate pigments also in their pulp tissue.

At the late stages of ripening, some senescence-related physiological changes results in large losses of fruit crops due to cell structures deteriorate and the fruit become susceptible to pathogens. Excessive softening results in shorter shelf life during storage, transportation and distribution, and increased wastage.
Ripening phase of fruit

Production of banana in India

Banana belongs to family Musaceae in the order Scitaminae. India ranks second in banana production among the various banana-producing countries in the world.

In India banana is the most fruit produce by the famers next to mango. Agricultural activity is the major occupation in India. The major banana-growing states are Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, and Assam.

Biodiversity in the cultivars of banana which consist of triploids, is complex especially in Nendran. Nendran belonging to Musa AAB plantain subgroup is the leading banana cultivar of the Kerala.

Banana leaf is considered as ‘biological plate’ for serving dishes especially in South India. Starch is manufactured form the pseudostem. Banana fiber from the pseudostem is utilized for making attractive carry bags and it is a potential source of pulp.
Production of banana in India

Tamarind tree

Tamarindus indica L., commonly known as tamarind, is a multipurpose long-lived tree best known for its fruit. It is indigenous to tropical Africa and exotic to Asia and Central America. India and Thailand are the major tamarind world producers, generating 300 000 and 140 000 tons annually, respectively. The tamarind tree originates from Madagascar. The most valuable and commonly used part is the fruit.

Tamarindus indica L. (syns. T occidentalis Gaertn, T officinalis Hook, T.umbrosa Salisb) belongs to the family leguminaceae (syns. Fabaceae) and subfamily Caesalpinaceae.

Tamarind may reach heights of 65 feet and a spread of 50 feet but is more often seen smaller. Leaves alternate, compound, with 10-18 pairs of opposite leaflets; leaflets narrowly oblong, 12-32 x 3-11 mm, petiole and rachis finely haired, midrib and net veining more or less conspicuous on both surfaces; apex rounded to almost square, slightly notched; base rounded, asymmetric, with a tuft of yellow hairs; margin entire, fringed with fine hairs. Stipules present, falling very early.

The fruit is a curved or straight pod with rounded ends, 12 to 15 cm in length, covered with a hard brown exterior shell. Fruit pulp is brown or reddish-brown when mature and the fruit pod contains between I and 12 flat and glossy brown seeds. The pulp constitutes 30–50 % of the ripe fruit, the shell and fibre account for 11–30 % and the seed about 25–40 %.

Tamarind pulp is rich in minerals such as potassium (62–570 mg/100 g); phosphorus (86–190 mg/100 g); and calcium (81–466 mg/100 g), and iron (1.3–10.9 mg/100 g). According to Parvez et al. (2003), magnesium content is high (25.6–30.2 mg/100 g), as is sodium (23.8–28.9 mg/100 g), whereas copper (0.8–1.2 mg/100 g) and zinc (0.8–0.9 mg/100 g) are low. It also excels in riboflavin and is a good source of thiamin and niacin, but is poor in vitamin A and vitamin C.
Tamarind tree

McIntosh apple

The McIntosh apple is a hero to some pie makers and a villain to others. The controversy centers on its white finely textured flesh which becomes very soft in the baking - the sort of mushy soft that some people adore and others despise.

The McIntosh had been around for a long time. Named for John McIntosh who discovered it as a seedling on a partly overgrown farm in Dundas County in Ontario around 1811 the McIntosh proved to be an exceptionally hardy apple.

Instead of tossing the tiny trees onto a pile of brush that would later be burned, he transplanted them to a nearby garden.

Although John, his wife and two sons, Allan and Sandy, had been operating a nursery primarily for the sale of the McIntosh apples since the mid-1830s, it took until the 1890s before the variety became popular.

McIntosh apples are relatively less susceptible than Golden Delicious apples to changes in color and to development of shriveling when stored under similar conditions.

McIntosh is a hardy apple producing quality dessert apple with firm, crisp, and tart flavor. This apple has a bright red skin sometimes tinged with green. Its flesh is medium-crisp and juicy and its flavor is tartly sweet and perfume.
McIntosh apple

Apple in England

The apple is a deciduous tree, under the middle size, with spreading branches which form in general an irregular head.

In England apples were grown everywhere and had been there so long that Englishman considered them as native to their island.

The apple, as a fruit tree, will do no good expect in a fertile soil and a sheltered situation. Every kind of fruit, to be brought to perfection, requires s a soil more or less calcareous.

The climate of England the loamy on limestone rock that are found in the country, appear to bring the apple to the highest degree of perfection.

Different apples are associated with different counties:
Ashmead’s Kernel - Gloucestershire
King’s Acre Pippin - Herefordshire
Blenheim Orange – Oxfordshire
Ribston Pippin – Yorkshire

The main commercial fruit-growing areas of England – Kent, Somerset, Devon, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Herefordshire and Worcestershire – each have their own specialties.
Apple in England

Fruit of melons

Melons belong, as do squash, to the cucumber.

There are to general types, the cucumis species, which includes muskmelon, cantaloupe and honeydew melons and the citrullus species, including the watermelon and the Chinese watermelon.

There are numerous varieties of melon.

Although they may be grown in almost any of the 50 states, except possibly Alaska, cucumis species require warm weather for good growth and 75 – 130 days from planting to harvesting; therefore, most are grown commercially in the southern states.

The citrullus species are grown in the South, but can also be grown those northern states where 130 – 140 days of growing weather prevail. In warmer climates, about 85 days are required from planting to maturity.

Melons are planted as seed but may be started in greenhouses or hot frames and set out as plants.

Melons do not improve in flavor after harvesting, hence, are picked when fully ripe.

Care must be taken to prevent bruising during harvesting and handling. Melons are mostly handled as the fresh product.

At packing plant, melons are washed, drained, dried and shipped to retail markets in wooden crates.

Melons are not preserved by drying. Some melons are frozen as melon balls.

In preparations for freezing, the melons are halved, the seeds are removed. And the melon meat is removed in ball-shaped pieces.

The melon balls are washed with sprays of water drained and filled into liquid-tight cartons and covered with syrup (25-30% sugar), and the cartons are sealed.

This product is frozen and stored at 0 degree F or below until shipped to the retailer.

Frozen melons should be held at 0 degree F or below until sold to the consumer. Some melons used in the production of fresh fruit salad.
Fruit of melons

Fruits

Fruits
Upon fertilization, the ovary around the seed undergoes development, forming the pericarp that becomes the fruit.

Fruits however are if different types by origin.

An orange for example is a matured ovary or a pericarp, so is the grape. Most berries like strawberry, mulberry and raspberry are several ovaries of one flower and each containing a seed.

A pineapple is formed from many flowers, its edible part is made of not only the ovaries but of most of the flower parts and the branches which bear them. All great enlarged and packed closely together. Many pericaprs however are not edible, they become either husks or shell.

In general fruits refer to objects differing greatly in origin and structure which usually exclude the hard and seed like objects which are sometimes comparable to fruits in origin.

Botany defines fruits as matured ovaries, however there is a need to justify these according to types and other technical treatment.
Fruits

Fruits consumption in United States

What is crop? Crop is cultivated plants or agricultural produce, such as fruit, considered as a group. It is produced according to the certain production criteria which have been set.

The United States is among the top producers and costumers of fruits and tree nuts in the world. Each years, fruit and tree nuts production generates about 13% a-I US farm cash receipts for all agricultural crops.

Between 1970 and 2008, the amount of fresh and processed fruit consumed rose 6 percent and the amount of fresh and processed vegetables increased 17 percent. Most of these increases were for fresh fruits and vegetables.

Oranges, apples, grapes and bananas are the most popular fruits. Apples are the most consumed fruit in the United States, with a per capital fresh consumption of approximately.

The US government has made preliminary efforts to promotes healthy eating and physical activity. The government also fund the provision of fruits and vegetables in pilot school systems.

Many other factors motivate this increase, including consumers’ awareness of the health benefits of fruit constituents such as the importance of dietary fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals present in fruits.
Fruits consumption in United States

Crop of avocado

The avocado Persea americna Mill is a major fruit crop of the tropics and subtropics. Avocado ranks 10th in total production among fruit crops after Musa spp. (banana and plantain).

The major production areas are in the Western Hemisphere. The most important producing countries are Mexico, the United States, Brazil, Dominican Republic and Indonesia.

Botanically, avocado fruit are considered berries. They consists of a single, large seed with two cotyledons surrounded by the tick fleshy, edible mesocarp and the rind.

Avocado prefer mild winters of tropics and subtropics. Plants are extremely sensitive to poor drainage, heavy clay and saline conditions and windy situations.

Oil may be obtained from the fruit pulp and pit. It has a high nutritional value since it contains essential fatty acids. Minerals, proteins and vitamins A, B6, C, D and E.

The content of saturated fatty acids in the pulp of the fruit and in the oil is low; on contrary, it is very high in mono-unsaturated fatty acids. The oil content of the fruit is in the range 12-30%.
Crop of avocado

Fruit Crops and Global Trade

Fruit Crops and Global Trade
Humankind’s relationship with fruiting plants began long before the origin of agriculture in 8,000 to 10,000 BC, when all human beings practiced the hunter gatherer lifestyle.

Fruit mainstay of our diet, being excellent sources of fiber, vitamins and other healthful or medicinal compounds unbeknownst to us then.

While cereal grains, such as wheat and barley, were probably the first crop plants domesticated by humans, several of today’s fruit crops, were not far behind, since they were native to the very same area – the Fertile Crescent of Asia Minor.

Domestication of wild fruiting plants may have been inadvertent; the first groves of fruit trees probably sprang from seeds thrown in waste heaps at the edge of villages.

Careful observation and selection for useful traits, such as larger size, better taste and higher yield, started the transformation of those wild plants into the crops, which cultivate and enjoy today.

During the age of discovery, fruit, seeds or live plants were often taken on transoceanic, voyages and exchanges in both direction helped spread many crops throughout the world.

Christopher Columbus and his contemporaries may not have realized the impact they would have on agriculture and society when they brought crops such as coffee and citrus to the New World, returning to Europe with previously unknown but now common, foods such as cocoa and pineapple.

Today, we have well established world trade networks and sophisticated cultural and postharvest technologies that allow fruits to be enjoyed throughout much of the year, instead of mere weeks per year, as our ancestor experienced.

Global trade has made formerly rare and exotic treats derived from fruit crops commonplace in countries with no hope of cultivating the plants.

Fruit crops are important agricultural commodities they add tens of billions of dollars per year to the global economy and are major source of income for developing countries.

World wide, over 100 millions acres of land has been devoted to their production, and the livehood of literally millions of farming families depends on continued global trade.
Fruit Crops and Global Trade

Pineapples Harvesting

Pineapples Harvesting
Pineapples grow in plants developed from crowns top leafy portion of the fruit or from slips and shoots of the plant. The fruit matures in about 1.5 years, but in climates where pineapples is harvested for purpose of canning, planting times staggered such that some fruit reaches maturity and is harvested each month of the year.

There are two main varieties of pineapple. The red Spanish variety is grown mainly in Florida and the West Indies, as well as some other countries, and is used in the United States as the fresh product. The smooth cayenne variety is grown mainly in Mexico and Hawaii. The red Spanish variety, when ripe, is more acid and contains less sugar than does the smooth cayenne type. When ready for harvesting for purpose of canning, the smooth cayenne variety has about 0.5 – 0.6% acid (calculated as citric acid) and 10 – 12% sugar. The fruit is broken from the stalk. If the fruit is to be handled as fresh, it is placed in crates or trucks for transportation to the processing plant. If the fruit is to be canned, the crowns are broken off prior to placing in trucks or in crates and trucks.

Pineapples to be used as fresh may harvested in the matured green or ripe condition. They are packed in crates and air-cooled to 45 – 55 degree F. In this condition, the mature green fruit has a storage life 3 – 4 week, while the ripe fruit has a storage life of 2 – 4 weeks. Spoilage of fresh fruit is usually caused by fermentation due to the growth of yeasts or molds.
Pineapples Harvesting

Watermelon Harvesting and Handling

Watermelon Harvesting and Handling
Watermelons are summer crops that need effective handling for quality production. To produce the red, juicy, crispy variety of melons, special care and attention is obligatory. To determine the quality and ripeness of watermelons without tasting is not an easy task as external color or appearance does not actually reveal the quality of the flesh inside. This task of determining the quality of watermelons without tasting requires the aid of a skillful hand.

Watermelons are warm, long season crops and grow best on well-drained sandy loam soils with slight acid. Sandy soils with adequate fertilizers yield very fine quality watermelons. Watermelon is fairly tolerant to soil pH as low as 5.5. Watermelon grows best where soil pH is between 6.0 and 7.0. Application of lime to a low pH soil can yield better results. Before planting the seeds of watermelons, much labor is invested to prepare the soil. In addition to plowing and disking, sub soiling beneath the row promotes deeper rooting in soils having a compacted layer. In case of strong winds, windbreaks of fall-planted wheat or rye or spring-planted hybrid Sudan helps to provide some protection to young plants. The windbreak crop between the rows is cultivated or disked out as the watermelon vines begin to run. A narrow windbreak strip can be left standing between rows for wind protection later in the season, but it should be undercut or killed with chemicals to reduce competition with the watermelon crop.

Depending on variety and season, watermelons reach harvest maturity five to six weeks after pollination. Different varieties of watermelons carry different characteristics, thus indicating different levels of maturity. Experts on the field can easily identify a ripe melon just by glancing at its glossy rind surface. Other indications of ripeness include a change in the color of the ground spot from white to light yellow.
Watermelon Harvesting and Handling