Blackberries (Rubus spp.) are among the high added value food products relevant for human health due to the increasing evidence of the beneficial effects of polyphenols, which are very abundant in these fruits. Interestingly, these compounds also play a role on plant physiology, being especially relevant their role in plant defense against biotic and abiotic stress. Hence, we hypothesize that s...

The consumption of alcohol is often accompanied by other foods, such as fruits and vegetables. This study is aimed to investigate the effects of 20 selected fruits on ethanol metabolism to find out their potential health benefits and harmful impacts. The effects of the fruits on ethanol metabolism were characterized by the concentrations of ethanol and acetaldehyde in blood, as well as activiti...

BACKGROUND The ecological factors contributing to the evolution of tropical vertebrate communities are still poorly understood. Primate communities of the tropical Americas have fewer folivorous but more frugivorous genera than tropical regions of the Old World and especially many more frugivorous genera than Madagascar. Reasons for this phenomenon are largely unexplored. We developed the hypot...

The aim of the work reported herein was to determine whether the lack of normal ripening in fruits of rin and nor tomato mutants is due to the presence of ripening inhibitors or to the lack of ripening factors in the fruit. A fruit tissue transplantation technique was developed for this purpose.Disks of pericarp tissue were transplanted reciprocally between tomato fruits (Lycopersicon esculentu...

The effect of the application of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) and wax emulsions, alone or combined, on composition analysis, vitamin C, polyphenols, and antioxidant capacity of soursop was evaluated. Fruits were stored as follows: at 25 °C (control), and at 16 °C: fruits sprayed with candelilla or flava emulsions, fruits treated with 1500 nL/L of 1-MCP (20 °C, 12 h), and fruits treated with 1-M...

For reducing the post-harvest loss and extension of shelf-life of banana, it is treated with fungicide or combination of fungicide and hot-water treatment. A study was conducted for developing a method to control post-harvest diseases and extension of shelf-life of banana through non-chemical method of hot water treatment. The best treatment combination was found at 53 °C for 9 minutes. Shelf-l...

This study identified the secondary metabolites present and determined the antioxidant activity of 31 edible wild fruits grown in Benguet province, Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines. Total polyphenol and flavonoid content were estimated using Folin-Ciocalteu and aluminium chloride method respectively. Antioxidant activity was measured through diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl assay. Based o...

The composition and content of the active constituents and their biological activity vary according to diverse factors including their maturation stages. A previous study showed that the fruits of Cudrania tricuspidata inhibited pancreatic lipase activity, a key enzyme in fat absorption. In this study, we investigated the chemical composition and pancreatic lipase inhibitory activity of unripe ...

The relationships of fruit age, abscisic acid (ABA) concentration, ethylene evolution, and abscission rates were studied in an effort to determine why cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L., cv. Deltapine 16) fruits rarely abscise more than 15 days after anthesis. Because abscission of cotton fruits is increased by conditions that limit photosynthesis, greenhouse-grown plants with fruits of various ages...

The purpose of this project was to find out if the agent ethylene glycol, when diluted, can ripen various fruits faster than the regular ripening rate of the fruits, in colder climactic conditions. The materials for the experiment were basically fruits, containers, ethylene glycol and water. The ethylene, at first, was combined with the water. The fruits were placed in open containers and a set...