Agriculture Reference
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which is mainly influenced by the mineral contents of the cropping soils and of the water for
irrigation [29].
7. Index of maturity and taste index
The organic acid in a tomato fruit consist of mainly citric and malic acid with a range of 0.3 to
0.6%. Conventional tomatoes contained more organic acids in comparison to those cultivated
by organic methods, in all periods of analysis, being approximately about 0.48% [21].
Organic production Conventional production
TA (%) TSS (Brix o ) TA (%) TSS (Brix o )
Amati
0.41± 0.01c 4.83± 0.4b 0.48± 0.02 a 4.95± 0.5a
Robin
0.44± 0.01b
4.76± 0.5b
0.47± 0.02a
4.85± 0.6a
Elpida
0.47± 0.01a
5.08± 0.5a
0.48± 0.01a 4.59± 0.5b
Table 4. Total acidity (TA) and total soluble solid (TSS) content of three tomato cultivars from organic and
conventional production system
At the same time, it should be noted that Elpida tomatoes were richer in organic acids in
comparison to other examined cultivars, independently from the used cultivation system
(Table 4). As with the sugars, the organic acids are crucial to the flavour of the fruits. The
average contents Brix degree and acidity were 4.6 and 0.50 g 100 -1 of citric acid, respectively
[64].
The concentration of sugars may vary from 1.66 to 3.99% and 3.05 to 4.65% of the fresh matter,
as a function of the cultivar and cultivation conditions, respectively [63]. As with the sugars,
the organic acids are crucial to the flavour of the fruits. The average contents Brix degree and
acidity were 4.6 and 0.50 g 100g -1 of citric acid, respectively [29]. The taste index is calculated
by applying the equation using the values of Brix degree and acidity [27].
The Elpida cultivar from organic production system had a mean value (1.1) of the taste index
higher (P < 0.05) than those values determined for the organic Robin (0.98) and Amati (1.0)
cultivars (Table 5). No significant differences were found between the cultivars in the mean
taste index obtained for conventionally cultivated tomatoes. When using these data, the mean
values of the taste index in all the tomatoes belonging to all the cultivars considered were
higher than 0.85, which indicates that the tomato cultivars analyzed are tasty. If the value of
the taste index is lower than 0.7, the tomato is considered as having little taste [27].
Another parameter related with the taste index is the maturity index which is usually a better
predictor of an acid's flavour impact than Brix degree or acidity alone. Acidity tends to decrease
with the maturity of the fruits while the sugar content increases. Significantly greater maturity
index in organic Amati fruit (11.7) and lower maturity index in conventional Elpida fruit (9.6)
were found [21]. The maturity index in this study (in all cultivars in both production systems)
were higher than those found by maturity index reported by [64] was 9.4 and therefore, it can
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