Resumo

TERAN, Yanira; D'AUBETERRE, Ramón  e  DE CAMACARO, María P. Physical and chemical characterization of the cacti fruits of the municipality Torres and Jimenez, Lara state, Venezuela. Agronomía Trop. [online]. 2008, vol.58, n.1, pp.17-20. ISSN 0002-192X.

In Lara state, the semiarid zones represent approximately 52% of the total territory. Among the xerophytes plants found in the area can be mentioned the cactus Lemaireocereus griseus (Haw) Britt & Rose. This plant is well adapted to soil and climate conditions. The fruits from this plant represents a source of feeding for local people and showed a potential for fresh and industrial consumption. The objective of this research was to evaluate the chemical and physical characteristics of the fruit of the cactus Lemaireocereus griseus (Haw) Britt & Rose. Different colors of pulp were colleted such as: Red, White, Yellow, Orange y Fuchsia in San José of the Ranchos and Quibor of the Torres and Jimenez municipality, respectively. The fruits were evaluated in the Postharvest of the fruits and vegetable laboratory of the Agronomy Graduate School of the University Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado. The physical characteristics evaluated were: fresh mass (g): fruits total mass, pulp mass and mass skin, polar and equatorial diameter (cm) and seed numbers. The chemical characteristics evaluated were: total soluble solids TSS (ºBrix), pH and total acidity (TA; % citric acid). Complete randomized design was used with five repetitions and six fruits per repetition for each colors of pulp. The results showed that red pulp fruits presented the biggest values of fruit total mass and pulp mass with values of 36.5 and 26.76 g, respectively. The white pulp fruits presented the biggest skin mass and polar diameter, with average values of 13.98 ± 4.46 and 4.30 ± 0.44 cm. Similarly, the red pulp fruits had the highest number of seed number with 3251 ± 1173. The highest content of TSS was of 7.22 ± 2.32 ºBrix for de red pulp fruits. The white and red pulp fruits presented the highest values for both: chemical and physical characteristics.

Palavras-chave : Lemaireocereus griseus; semiarid; cactaceae; total soluble solids.