Relationship between biospeckle laser technique and firmness of Acrocomia aculeata fruits

• Autor(a) principal: Costa,Anderson G.
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Outros Autores: Pinto,Francisco A. C., Braga,Roberto A., Motoike,Sergio Y., Gracia,Luis M. N.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Engenharia Agrícola e Ambiental (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1415-43662017000100068
• topic: macaw palm; maturation; harvesting; optical techniques

ABSTRACT Knowing the maturation of the Acrocomia aculeata (macaw palm) fruit is decisive for harvest to be performed when the fruit has a higher content and quality of oil. There are different approaches to monitor maturation and they can be classified as destructive and non-destructive. Variables obtained by optical instruments have been used to determine maturation stage. The present study evaluated the relationship between the biological activity measured by the optical technique of biospeckle laser and firmness, measured in the Acrocomia aculeata fruit pulp between the 41st and 61st week after flowering. The biological activity was quantified by biospeckle images, while the fruit pulp firmness was determined by digital penetrometer. Correlations between variables were evaluated during maturation and in the senescence of fruits. According to the results, significant correlation between biological activity and firmness was found for both evaluated conditions, demonstrating that biospeckle laser can be an effective non-invasive indicator of Acrocomia aculeate fruit maturation assisting in the determination of the moment of harvest.