Mango - Crop Post-Harvest: Science and Technology - page 109

Table 6.1 Area and Production of Mango in
Different Parts of the World in 2005.

generally biased towards achieving more shelf life by
harvesting fruit prior to the appropriate maturity stage. The
determination of optimum harvest maturity remains a
debatable question. There is a plethora of maturity indices
which can be applied to judge the fruit maturation. The
suggested maturity indices for mango include morphologi-
cal changes (skin colour, shape), computational methods
(days from full bloom, days from fruit set, heat units),
chemical attributes (soluble solids content (SSC), acidity,
SSC: acidity, starch index, phenolics), physical attributes
(specific gravity) and some non-invasive methods such
as near-infrared spectroscopy and ultrasonic waves
(Table 6.2).
Mango fruit are mainly picked at mature unripe stage for
better storage life and long distance transportation. Visual
assessment is the most commonly followed subjective
method to determine harvest maturity in mango. It requires
a plentiful past experience about the maturation and
ripening behaviour of a particular cultivar at a location.
Visible skin colour change from dark green to light green is
a very common maturity index, but not always accurate.
Some cultivars such as 'Harumanis' 'Katchamita' (Lizada,
1993) and 'Langra' retain green colour even if physiologi-
cally mature and ripe. Another conspicuous change in the
morphology of maturing mango is rising of shoulders and
sunken stem end; it is also referred to as the fullness of
cheeks. Fully mature mango fruit have raised shoulders
(Wang & Shiesh 1990). But this index may fail to judge the
maturity of certain cultivars having no or less prominent
shoulders; for example, 'Totapari'. 'Kensington Pride'
mangoes can be considered fully mature and ready to pick
when flesh colour is almost all yellow and the fruit shape is
filled out around the beak (Holmes et al . 1990).
The use of computational methods to ascertain harvest
maturity is widely studied and practised (Burondkar et al .
2000; Del Mundo et al . 1984; Kalra & Tandon 1983;
Kasantikul 1983; Kudachikar et al . 2003; Lechaudel & Joas
2006; Mendoza et al . 1972; Obasi 2004; Shinde et al . 2001;
Wang & Shiesh 1990). Number of days from full bloom
(DFFB) or fruit set (DFFS) to reach physiological maturity
varies among cultivars and locations and thus, cannot serve
as a good guide. Therefore, the recommendation of DFFB
or DFFS for a cultivar should be restricted over a small geo-
graphical area. The total heat units can also serve as a reli-
able alternative to other computational methods. For
example, in 'Alphonso' mango, the number of days from
fruit set to maturity varies at two locations, but the heat
units remaining the same constitute a good calculative
maturity index (Burondkar et al . 2000; Shinde et al . 2001).
Since mango is a crop of subtropical and tropical regions,

Area
(millions of ha)

Production
(millions of tonnes) Continent

Asia 3.05 21.19

Africa 0.38 2.73

North and Central
America

0.30 2.55

South America 0.12 1.69
Rest of the world 0.02 0.06
World 3.87 28.22
Source: FAOSTAT (2005), http://www.fao.org.

have seriously hampered the international trade. Major
mango producing countries still lack commercial-scale
post-harvest handling facilities for cooling, cold storage,
quarantine treatments and other cutting-edge technologies
developed for mango. This chapter will focus on the matu-
rity indices, ripening changes, post-harvest handling and
storage, disorders, post-harvest insect pest disinfestations
and disease management of mango fruit.

MATURITY INDICES
Harvesting at optimum maturity is a critical step which
determines the potential storage life, flavour and consumer
acceptance of mango fruit (Medlicott et al . 1988, Seymour
et al . 1990). Immature fruit are more prone to mechanical
damage (Chonhenchob & Singh 2003) and of inferior
quality when ripe (Medlicott et al . 1988). These are also
more susceptible to certain post-harvest maladies like
chilling injury in addition to their uneven ripening
behaviour with less skin colour development (Ledger
1995). However, more delay in picking the fruit may result
in aggravation of physiological disorders like internal
breakdown (Lee et al . 1998). The advanced maturation of
mango on the tree results in better aroma quality (Bender
et al . 2000a), lower sugar acid ratio (Lakshminarayana,
1975) and reduces the storage potential (Seymour et al .
1990). Optimum harvest maturity determines the suitabil-
ity of fruit for post-harvest treatments like vapour heat or
hot-water treatments in order to meet the quarantine
requirements (Jacobi et al . 2001a; Jacobi & Wong, 1992)
Immature fruit subjected to hot-water treatment show
severe heat injury in the form of skin scald, while fruit at
advanced maturity are more tolerant (Jacobi et al . 2001a).
If fruit are not harvested at an appropriate stage of matura-
tion, the characteristic flavour and aroma fail to develop.
But, harvesting decisions by growers and contractors are