Journal of Food Engineering 72 (2006) 7376

www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Physical and mechanical properties of mango during growth

and storage for determination of maturity
S.N. Jha
a

a,*

, A.R.P. Kingsly b, Sangeeta Chopra

Agriculture Structure and Process Engineering Division, Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology,
PO-PAU, Ludhiana 141 004, India
b
Horticulture Crop Processing Division, CIPHET, Abohar 152 116, Punjab, India
Received 15 March 2004; accepted 8 November 2004
Available online 25 December 2004

Abstract
The measurement of maturity is of paramount importance to harvest good quality mango. Changes in size, sphericity, total soluble solids (TSS) content, surface color and rmness of mango were studied during growth and storage at ambient temperature. Size
and sphericity were measured using the standard methods. Surface color was determined using a HunterLab colorimeter and the
rmness by texture analyzer. The size of the fruits increased gradually during growth and the sphericity remained in the range of
0.670.70. Size and sphericity decreased due to shrinkage during storage. The rmness of the fruits remained almost constant over
the period of growth and it decreased after attaining the maturity, whereas yellowness of fruits increased during both growth and
storage. Maturity of mango could be predicted by measuring size, color and rmness.
2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Color values; Firmness; Maturity; Size; Sphericity; Total soluble solids

1. Introduction
Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is an important tropical
fruit having heavy demand in world market. It is consumed both as fresh and in processed form. The storage
life of the mango depends on the stage of maturity at
which the fruit is harvested. Mango fruits are generally
harvested at physiologically matured stage to get optimum fruit quality. Immature fruits display erratic ripening behaviour, may not develop full avour and aroma,
which ultimately leads to their rejection. Usually harvesting is initiated when a few mango fruits on the tree
begin to ripen and fall (Kalra, Tandon, & Singh,
1995). The chemical or physiological determination of
maturity involves very laborious laboratory techniques.

Presently most consumers determine the maturity by

surface rmness, gloss, avour etc., which is often misleading (Jha & Matsuoka, 2000). Measuring maturity
is of paramount importance to harvest fruit to have
good post-harvest quality. The fruit is considered to be
mature when the total soluble solids (TSS), a measure
of sweetness, reaches 8 Brix (Rameshwar, 1993). The
objectives of the present study were thus to determine
the physical and mechanical properties of mango fruit
and nd out some measurable parameters to know the
maturity on tree.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Sampling of mango

Corresponding author. Tel.: + 91 161 257 2039; fax: +91 161 280
8670.
E-mail address: [email protected] (S.N. Jha).
0260-8774/$ - see front matter 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2004.11.020

Three mango trees (Cv. Dashehari) were selected in

farm orchard, near the institute, based on owering

74

S.N. Jha et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 72 (2006) 7376

amount, size of trees and location for the study in

spring, 2003. Fruiting of mango was continuously observed after full bloom (when more than 60% owers
had opened). One mango from each direction (east,
west, north and south) of each tree was manually
plucked at 48 h interval from the 6th June, i.e. zero date
of harvest, (when mango was not fully matured) to the
9th July and brought to laboratory for the study. Altogether 12 mangoes were harvested at alternate day and
the studies were conducted in ambient conditions
(35 0.1 C and 65 1% RH). The readings were averaged for each time interval. To study the properties in
stored conditions, two batches (one batch on 27th June
and another on 9th July) of fully matured fruits were
harvested and stored in the same conditions. Twenty
mangoes were randomly selected on alternate days for
experimentations and the average values were calculated. Altogether 420 mangoes were used in experiments.

diameter stainless steel probe. The operating conditions

were, pre-test speed, 1.5 mm s1, test speed, 0.50 mm s1
and post-test speed of 10.0 mm s1. The maximum value
recorded by the probe while passing through the fruit, in
Newton (N), was given as rmness of mango. The rmness was measured at two opposite points, at the distance of about 10 mm from each other, in the center
of the mango and the average value was presented.
2.2.4. Total soluble solids (TSS)
After measuring the rmness, the juice of mango was
extracted using a commercial juice extractor at room
temperature (32.2 C) after peeling (about 0.2 mm skin
thickness). The juice was ltered using a muslin cloth.
New piece of cloth was used for ltering each sample.
The TSS was estimated using a hand held refractometer
(ERMA, Japan) with a scale of 032 Brix (least count
0.2 Brix).

2.2. Experimentation
3. Results and discussion

2.2.1. Size and sphericity

The size was measured in three major axes using a
vernier caliper (least count 2 mm) and expressed in
terms of geometrical mean diameter (Mohsenin, 1980)
as
Size abc

1=3

where a = longest intercept; b = longest intercept normal

to a; c = longest intercept normal to a and b.
Sphericity was then calculated using the formula
Sphericity

Geometrical mean diameter

Longest intercept

2.2.2. Color
The color of mangoes in terms of L, a, b values was
determined using HunterLab miniScan XE Plus colourimeter (HAL, USA, Model 45/0-L). L denotes the lightness or darkness, a, green or red and b, blue or yellow
color of the samples. The nose cone was positioned in
the surface of the mango such that the light thrown by
the colourimeter is not leaked. The color was measured
in four places of each sample and average values were
recorded for the study. Before measuring, the colourimeter was standardized with black and white calibration
tiles provided with the instrument.
2.2.3. Firmness
Change in rmness during the period of maturity and
storage was measured using the texture analyzer
(TA-Hdi, Stable Micro systems, UK) with the 2 mm

3.1. Size and sphericity

The size of the fruits increased gradually over the period of maturity (Fig. 1) from 66.8 mm to 69.6 mm. At
initial stages of growth the change was not so noticeable,
but when the fruit attained TSS of above 8 Brix (a measure of maturity) the size increased above 70 mm. The
increase in size may be due to physiological growth
and the average value of size at this TSS may be taken
as a parameter for harvesting of mango.
The increase in sphericity was not so substantial, and
only a slight change was noticed during the growth (Fig.
2). It varied from 0.67 to 0.70. As the fruit developed
uniformly in all three axes, the sphericity of the fruits remained almost constant.
Rate of decrease in size was evident in terms of slope
of curves for stored mangoes (Fig. 3). It may be mainly
due to shrinkage in the fruits because of moisture loss
during storage. The decrease in sphericity (Fig. 4) also
shows that shrinkage occurred in the minor axes along
breadth and width during storage, which may be useful

75

Size, mm

The parameters such as size, sphericity, TSS, color

and rmness were determined during the fruit development and storage as below.

Zero harvesting time on 6/6/03

70

65

60
0

48

96

144 216 264 312 384 432 480 552 600 648 720 768
Harvesting period, h

Fig. 1. Size of fresh mangoes.

S.N. Jha et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 72 (2006) 7376

0.72

75
First batch

Zero harvesting time on 6/6/03

second batch

TSS, Brix

20

Sphericity

0.70

0.68

15
10
5
0
0

0.66

72

120

168

240

288

Storage period, h

Fig. 6. TSS content of stored mangoes.

0.64
0

48

96

144 216 264 312 384 432 480 552 600 648 720 768
Harvesting period, h

Fig. 2. Sphericity of fresh mangoes.

First batch
Second batch

Size, mm

75
70
65
60
55
0

72

120

168

240

288

Storage period, h

Fig. 3. Change in size of stored mangoes.

First batch

Sphericity

Second batch
0.70
0.68
0.66
0.64
0.62
0.60

3.3. Color
0

72

120

168

240

288

Storage period, h

Fig. 4. Change in sphericity of stored mangoes.

in calculation of packing requirement of mango for

transportation and storage.
3.2. Total soluble solids
Two phases of the change in TSS content of fresh
fruit were clearly visible, during development and after
attaining maturity (Fig. 5). Till reaching the maturity
stage, no systematic trend was observed with only a
slight increase (6.908.10 Brix). After attaining maturity, the TSS content increased signicantly (8.1013
Brix).

In the initial stages of fruit development, the L value

decreased, whereas it marginally increased in the later
stages due to the appearance of yellowness (Fig. 7).
The a value which indicates the green color of the skin
increased from 7.70 to 5.59 over the period of maturity. The presence of yellowness (b value) in the surface
of the fruit decreased in the initial stages and then increased in the later stages of maturity. This shows the
development of dark green color in the initial stages
and the appearance of light yellow color when the fruit
started maturing.
In both the batches of stored mangoes, the L value
increased upto 240 h of storage, and then decreased
marginally due to the appearance of black spots (symptom of initiation of rotting) in the skin (Figs. 8a and b).
The gures also reveal that the green color (a value)

Zero harvesting time on 6/6/03

50

15

Color values

Zero harvesting time on 6/6/03

13

TSS, Brix

The TSS content of stored fruits (Fig. 6) generally increased due to ripening (up to 19.73 Brix), but at the
end of storage period it decreased slightly and remained
around 15 Brix. Decrease in TSS may be due to excessive ripening and then rotting of mango during storage.
The mangoes harvested at or above 8 Brix showed better shelf life and maintained the quality. So, 552 h from
the rst day of harvest may be taken as suitable time of
harvest when majority of mangoes have attained full
maturity. No signicant dierence was noticed in the
TSS content of both batches of stored mangoes (Fig.
6) except that increase in TSS of second batch was almost linear, which is due to the fact that it was harvested
late when majority of mangoes were matured and thus
ripening was gradual and smooth.

11
9

40
30

20

10

-10

5
0

48

96

144 216 264 312 384 432 480 552 600 648 720 768

Harvesting period, h

Fig. 5. TSS of fresh mangoes.

48

96 144 216 264 312 384 432 480 552 600 648 720 768

Harvesting period, h

Fig. 7. L, a, b Values of fresh mangoes.

S.N. Jha et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 72 (2006) 7376

First batch

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
-10

L
a
b

72

(a)

120

168

240

288

Storage period, h

Firmness, N

Color values

76

second batch

40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0

Color values

72

120

168

240

288

Storage period, h

60
40

20

-20
0

48

(b)

120

168

240

288

Storage period

Fig. 8. (a) L, a, b values of stored mangoes (rst batch) (b) L, a, b

values of stored mangoes (second batch).

Fig. 10. Change in rmness of stored mangoes.

comparatively high (Fig. 10). This high rate of decrease

may be due to cell wall degradation. Similar nature of
eggplant during storage has also been reported and considered as critical period of storage (Jha & Matsuoka,
2002).

4. Conclusions
Zero harvesting time on 6/6/03

Firmness, N

36
32
28
24
20
0

48

96

144 216 264 312 384 432 480 552 600 648 720 768
Harvesting period, h

Fig. 9. Firmness of mango peel.

completely disappeared after 168 h of storage mainly

due to increase in surface yellowness. The b value increased upto 240 h of storage and then decreased marginally due to the appearance of black spots.
3.4. Firmness
The change in rmness is associated with the stage of
maturity. In the initial stages of fruit development, the
rmness remained almost constant (Fig. 9) and after
attaining the stage of maturity, the rmness decreased
from 32.96 N to 22.39 N. It may be due to change in
structure of the pectin polymers during ripening in the
cell wall (Kalra et al., 1995). The maximum rmness
was observed as 32.96 N when the TSS content was
8.10 Brix at 552 h after date of rst harvest. Firmness
of stored mangoes also decreased continuously till
168 h of storage, beyond which the rate of decrease is

Maturity of the mango fruit has been correlated with

size, sphericity, color and rmness in an attempt to x it
in measurable units. At the stage of optimum maturity
(8 Brix) at 552 h after rst harvest, the size of the fruit
was 70 mm with an sphericity of about 0.69. The L, a, b
values were found to be 42.31, 6.70 and 16.75, respectively with a fruit rmness of 30 N. These values may be
used to nd out the optimum maturity stage for harvesting of mangoes. The storage study revealed that the harvesting of mango at optimum maturity stage led to
uniform ripening and better storage life of about 168 h
at 35 0.1 C and 65 1% RH.

References
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