Satsuma mandarin fruit harvested at two different stages were analysed to investigate the spectrophotometric characteristics of carotenoid pigments in the peel. Mature green fruit showed chlorophyll a amount of 15.0 and chlorophyll b of 3.9( g/g f.wt....
Satsuma mandarin fruit harvested at two different stages were analysed to investigate the spectrophotometric characteristics of carotenoid pigments in the peel. Mature green fruit showed chlorophyll a amount of 15.0 and chlorophyll b of 3.9( g/g f.wt.) and thereafter their contents of fully ripened fruit were largely decreased 1.3 and 0.6( g/g f.wt.) respectively. However total carotenoid were increased to about two-fold compared to the mature green stage when fruit ripened fully. Carotenoid pattern were composed to be 20 different pigments in the fruit peel. Results of spectrophotometric charateristics represented specific color of existing major pigments;ß-carotene and cryptoxanthin were orange, chrysanthemaxanthin yellow-green, and lutein and antheraxanthin yellow-orange. There was found obvious phenomen during ripening of fruit peel that yellow-green(yg) section of major carotenoid pattern were decreased while most yellow- orange(yo) increased, which concomittantly appeared in external surface color change.