The use of potentially toxic ripening agents is common in developing countries. Four ripening agents namely calcium carbide, potash, African mango and jathropha curcas leaf were used and compared with a control with no ripening agent. Result showed that RB1 and RB2 were the first to ripen at 3days with RB5 at 6 th day. Protein content reduced in the ripened samples in the order of 4.12>3.68>3.0...

Raw ewes' milk semi-soft cheeses (RESS-cheeses) are important products in Portugal and in several European regions. Creamy texture is an essential attribute of these cheeses, which results from structural properties that are not always well characterized. Here, the structural changes occurring during the ripening period of a traditional RESS-cheese, known as Serpa cheese, were analysed through ...

Germin-like proteins (GLPs) have several proposed roles in plant development and defence. Two novel genes (Ps-GLP1 and 2) encoding germin-like protein were isolated from plum (Prunus salicina). Their regulation was studied throughout fruit development and during ripening of early and late cultivars. These two genes exhibited similar expression patterns throughout the various stages of fruit dev...

BACKGROUND Some European pear varieties treated with 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) often remain 'evergreen', meaning that their ripening process is blocked and does not resume after removal from cold storage. In this work this was confirmed also to be the case in 'Conference' pears. To reverse the blockage of ripening 1-MCP treatments combined with external exogenous ethylene were tested. RESU...

Few molecular studies have been devoted to the finger drop process that occurs during banana fruit ripening. Recent studies revealed the involvement of changes in the properties of cell wall polysaccharides in the pedicel rupture area. In this study, the expression of cell-wall modifying genes was monitored in peel tissue during post-harvest ripening of Cavendish banana fruit, at median area (c...

Polyphenols of fruits and vegetables form an important part of human dietary compounds. Relatively little is known about accumulation of phenolics during fruits ripening process. The goal of this work was to study the changes in antioxidant activity and in content of 30 polyphenols during ripening of tomato fruits. Five organically and conventionally grown tomato cultivars were investigated at ...

Fruit softening is an important part of the ripening process, and involves changes to cell turgor and primary cell wall structure. Most of the polysaccharide components of the cell wall are subjected to some degree of controlled degradation, resulting in a loosening and swelling of the wall structure, a weakening of cell wall strength, and reduced intercellular adhesion. Early ripening changes ...

Ethylene is a plant hormone that has an essential role in fruit ripening (Yang and Hoffman, 1984; Kende, 1993). ACC synthase (S-adenosyl-L-methionine methylethioadenosine-lyase, EC 4.4.1.14), which is encoded by a multigene family, plays a regulatory role in ethylene production. Severa1 genes for ACC synthase have been isolated from tomato (Rottmann et al., 1991), mung bean (Botella et al., 199...

CONTEXT Although studies support the efficacy of the Foley catheter (FC) as a cervical ripening agent in pregnant women at term with intact membranes, its efficacy has not been well studied in women with premature rupture of membranes (PROM). OBJECTIVE To compare the interval to delivery in women with PROM who underwent induction of labor and cervical ripening with mechanical (FC) vs nonmecha...

Fruit ripening in citrus is not well-understood at the molecular level. Knowledge of the regulatory mechanism of citrus fruit ripening at the post-transcriptional level in particular is lacking. Here, we comparatively analyzed the miRNAs and their target genes in a spontaneous late-ripening mutant, "Fengwan" sweet orange (MT) (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck), and its wild-type counterpart ("Fengjie ...