The relations of the chemical constituents to the qualities in dried persimmons. (2)

The relations of harvest time to the qualities of products

Abstract

(1) The relations of harvest time to the quali-ties of sun dried persimmons were investigated in 1955 using the fruits of “Yotsumizo” and “Hirata-nenashi” varieties. These fruits were harvest-ed on October 14, November 4 and November 22.
(2) The firmness of fresh fruits were decreas-ed by delaying the harvest time. This value of “Yotsumizo” was always higher than that of “Hi-ratanenashi”. The fruits of “Hiratanenashi” har-vested on November 22 already softened before drying, and were supposed to be not available for commercial drying.
(3) The total sugar content in the products of “Yotsumizo” variety significantly increased by delaying harvest, and that of “Hiratanenashi” showed the similar tendency, but it reached almost to the maximum in the products of the second harvest.
(4) The crude fiber content in the products of “Yotsumizo” significantly decreased by delaying harvest, but that of “Hiratanenashi” was some-what lower than the former, and showed less difference by changing the harvest time.
(5) The water soluble pectin ratio to total pectin content in products showed no correlation to harvest time. This might be explained by the fact that the products of every harvesting lot were analysed after many days of drying and storage in which the activity of pectic enzyme was probably retained. This ratio in “Hiratanenashi” was always higher than that of “Yotsumizo”.
(6) The products of the fruits harvested on November 4 showed no remarkable differences in chemical constituents between the lot prepared by sun drying and that prepared by dehydration.
(7) In these experiments, it was found that the most desirable materials for drying these varie-ties of persimmons were the second or the third harvest fruits for “Yotsumizo” and the secondd harvest ones for “Hiratanenashi”.