Kinetic Modeling of Mango Fruit Ripening

Abstract

In this work, three stages of mango ripening (mango ripening, ethylene inducement, rotting) are modelled kinetically.  Data for mango ripening are obtained from internet, and are used to perform regression analysis of the kinetic models developed.  It is seen that the results show linear relationship between concentrations and conversion for all the chemical components in all the models (fig. 1a, 2a, 3a).  Also the results of the concentration-time relationship are highly non-linear (fig. 1b, 2b and 3b).  The reciprocal of the reaction rates varies non-linearly with conversion: profile of ethylene inducement and rotting rise exponentially while that of mango ripening falls non-linearly.  The result of this study will help those dealing with fruits in orchard during harvesting and post harvest handling.

Keywords: mango fruit ripening, ethylene, kinetic modelling, maturing, rotting, stoichiometry