Evaluation of Physicochemical, Nutritional and Sensory Quality Characteristics of New Papaya Hybrids Fruits Developed in JKUAT

Abstract

The world is faced with a lot of challenges including lack of sustainable development and inability to feed its growing population leading to malnutrition. The issue of accessing high quality nutritious foods such as fruits has become a major challenge for many African people. Papaya (Carica papaya L.) is among the most popular fruits grown in Kenya and excellent in nutritional content. However, its potential has remained unexploited due to inadequate quality planting materials, high post- harvest losses and prevalence of pests and diseases. Researchers at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology developed promising papaya hybrids whose physicochemical, nutritional content and sensory characteristics have not been evaluated. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the physicochemical, nutritional content and sensory quality characteristics of the new papaya hybrids and their control, Sunrise Solo. The physicochemical attributes evaluated included; total soluble solids, total titratable acid, pH and total soluble solid/total titrable acid ratio. While the nutritional content evaluated included (Vitamin C and β-carotene content) and sensory quality characteristics were evaluated. The standard AOAC methods was used to determine nutritional content and an effective analysis with 9- point hedonic scale was used on sensory evaluation. There was significant difference (P< 0.05) in nutritional content of new hybrids papaya fruits and Sunrise solo. The maximum and minimum Vitamin C content of 131.63 mg/100g and 52mg/100g were exhibited by line 6 and 8 respectively. β-carotene content ranged between 1.69 and 3.39 mg/100g as exhibited by line 1 and lines 2 and 8 respectively. The findings of this study revealed that the nutritional content of the new papaya hybrids exceeded the one of Sunrise Solo while their sensory quality characteristics compared favourably to the one of Sunrise Solo. Based on these findings, lines 1, 2,5,6,7 can be recommended for commercialization.

Quality changes in papaya fruit under different storage temperatures and duration

“…The fruits' peel and flesh hue angles changed over the storage duration; similar results were observed by Caron et al (2013) as the papaya fruits' hue angles decreased after storing the fruits from day 0 to 30 days at both 5 and 10 ˚C. The visual sensation of fruit colors is the core factor that influences customer preferences upon the purchase of mature and ripe fruits (Ruslan et al, 2016) and is an indicator of freshness and flavor quality (Nishimwe et al, 2018). Both Mountain and F fruits had desirable amber flesh colors after 8 days of storage.…”

“…Total soluble solids for both papaya fruits increased with an increase in temperature and duration, reducing total titratable acidity and resulting in increased TSS:TTA ratios. A research study by Nishimwe et al (2018) reported that consumer acceptance of papaya fruits depends on physicochemical properties like TSS; F fruits would be more desirable to consumers compared to Mountain Fruits as they had more TSS and less TTA. Naturally, papaya is a sweet and low-acid fruit; hydrolysis of its starch to sugars as it advances in maturation has been explained as a reason behind the increase in TSS (Benkeblia et al, 2011) and low TTA values at the end of its shelf life (Falah et al, 2015).…”

Agronomic performance of new Jkuat papaya in different agro-ecological zones of kenya

“…These factors are also affected by different genetic constitution of different lines which are key and directly responsible for expression of genetic characters under a particular set of environment (Bhandari et al, 2017). The total soluble solids varied significantly among the papaya lines which was also reported by Nishimwe et al (2018). This is attributed to high photosynthetic efficiency and fast rate of diversion of sugars from source (leaf) to sink (fruit) which is different among the lines.…”