Abstract
The surface of newly cut cucumber fruit is astringent. It was found that the liquid exuded from the vascular bundles beneath the skin contained formate. We consider that this formate localized in the vascular bundles was the astringent substance in cucumber, because an aqueous solution of sodium formate had high astringency. It is traditionally believed that when the cut end of cucumber fruit is scrubbed against the cut surface of the remaining fruit, the unpleasant taste of the fruit is depressed. We compared the amounts of exudate from cut surfaces after cutting the fruit across the middle between the scrubbed fruit and the untreated fruit. The scrubbing treatment decreased the amount of exudate. It was confirmed by a sensory test that the astringency of the cucumber was depressed by the scrubbing treatment. We conclude that the scrubbing treatment was effective for discarding the liquid containing formate in the bundles and resulted in depressing the astringency of the fruit.
