Evaluation of predominant carotenoid contents in domestic 'Irwin' mango cultivated in plastic greenhouses at different sites in Japan.
Ogawa K., Fukamachi H., Kato H.
Author Affiliation: Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Science, Ishigaki 907-0002, Japan.
Journal of the Japanese Society for Horticultural Science 74 : 414-416
Abstract : The kinds and quantities of carotenoids in the flesh of tree-ripened 'Irwin' mango are compared among those cultivated in plastic greenhouses located at Kagoshima, Miyazaki, Amami-oshima and Okinawa Prefectures, Japan. The predominant carotenoids were ?-carotene and violaxanthin; their contents were 14.7±3.5 and 14.6±4.1 µg/g, respectively. The carotenoid contents significantly differed among harvest times and growing sites. The fluctuation of the carotenoid content seems to be independent of the harvest time, namely early-season or late-season culture, and the greenhouse temperature during cultivation. The fresh weight of the fruit was 453±96 g. Fruit size was unrelated to the carotenoid content on a fresh weight basis. Fruit growth was completed a month before the tree-ripening stage. The ?-carotene and violaxanthin contents increased rapidly from 2.9 to 9.7 µg/g and from 2.6 to 11.3 µg/g, respectively, during the 2 weeks before harvest.