Variability in the production of wound ethylene in bananas from the French West Indies

The main banana quality problems in the French West Indies are early ripening of fruit during storage and wound anthracnose. The extent of these post-harvest problems varies markedly for bananas grown in lowland areas, in contrast with those grown in the highlands. These quality problems are common during the second half of the year, when the fruit develops during the hot wet season. An experiment was carried out in areas with differing soils and climate, through two seasons with different rainfall patterns. The results showed that in the wet season, lowland fruit was mechanically more fragile and produced more wound ethylene than highland fruit (about 1850 nl/kg for lowland bananas, and 1000 nl/kg for highland bananas). The malic acid concentration of the fruit was quite closely correlated with this wound ethylene production, especially in fruit grown at low elevation (r = 0.80). However, there was no correlation between the ACC concentration of the fruit and wound ethylene production. On the other hand, there was a weak correlation between the Mn concentration and wound ethylene production in lowland bananas. These results indicate that climatic conditions during fruit growth has an important influence on fruit quality and post-harvest physiology. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V All rights reserved.