Qualidade pós-colheita de pedúnculos de cajueiro (Anarcardium occidentale L.) submetido a armazenamento refrigerado.

Abstract

The cashew tree (Anacardium occidentale L.) is a tropical fruit tree native to Brazil, widely exploited in the Northeast, generating income for small farmers who exploit it. The most used part of the cashew for commercialization is the chestnut, since the peduncle is the most wasted due to easy deterioration and short post-harvest life. In this context, the objective was to evaluate the post-harvest quality of the peduncles of five different cashews clones submitted to cold storage. The work was developed in the months of September and October 2019 at the Plant Physiology Laboratory belonging to the Center for Science and Agri-Food Technology (CCTA) of the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), Pombal-PB. The treatments consisted of 5 cashew clones (CCP 76, BRS 189, BRS 226, BRS 265 and BRS 253) and 2 storage times (1 day (5 hours after harvest) and 7 days after harvest). The experimental design used was completely randomized (DIC), in a 5 x 2 factorial scheme with 5 repetitions composed of 1 cashew. The following variables were evaluated: the fresh total mass, fresh chestnut mass, fresh peduncle mass, the basal diameter, apical diameter, peduncle length, color, peduncle firmness, soluble solids, total titratable acidity, the soluble solids ratio and total titratable acidity, the pH, vitamin C and sugars total soluble. The storage did not influence the physical characteristics of the cashew clones, proving to be efficient in terms of conservation, with clones BRS 265 and BRS 189 standing out in terms of these parameters. Refrigerated storage is essential for maintaining cashew qualities and ensuring acceptability by consumers.