Analele Universităţii din Craiova, seria Agricultură – Montanologie – Cadastru (Annals of the University of Craiova - Agriculture,
Montanology, Cadastre Series) Vol. XLVI 2016
THE INFLUENCE OF CULTIVAR ON THE QUALITY OF FRUIT THE
SPECIES Cucumis melo L
Dinu Maria1, Soare Rodica2
1
Faculty of Horticulture,University of Craiova, Department of Horticulture & Food Science, Romania
2
Faculty of Agriculture, University of Craiova, Department of Agricultural and Forestry Technology,
Romania
Key word: Cucumis melo L, S.D.M, carotene, ascorbic acid, total sugar
ABSTRACT
The present study evaluates the morphological and biochemical characteristics
most relevant from an assortment of seven melon cultivars with various origins, grown in
solar located in southwest of Romania. Fruit morphology of melon cultivars for various
parameters have differentiated such cultivation obviously. Also, their biochemical
composition varied from one to another cultivar. Soluble dry matter content was ranged
between 8.9 to 13.400 Brix; carotene content was 0.12 to 3.00 mg /g fresh substance;
ascorbic acid values ranged from 23.89 to 36.18 mg /g of fresh substance. Total sugar
ranged between 466.34 and 845.23 mg /g dry matter, so pulling out huge influence on fruit
quality of the cultivar of melon.
For cultivars Gustal and Corin were recorded high levels of acidity and total sugars
content which makes them to be requested by the consumer. Piel de Sapo cultivar
recorded lower values for ascorbic acid content and total sugars content but juiciness and
consistency of pulp made it to be most appreciated by the consumer. This cultivar
receiving the highest mark, 9.6 of all cultivars. These cultivars, due to morphological and
organoleptic characteristics of the fruits can be used to improve varieties.
INTRODUCTION
Cucumis melo L. is one of the most important and various species of the Cucumis
genus. It is grown primarily for its fruit which generally have a sweet flavour and a wide
variety of sizes (50 g to 15 kg). The fruit pulp can be orange, green, white and pink, the
peel is green, yellow, white, orange, red and gray and it has a round, flat and elongated
shape.
Cucumis melo can be classified into seven distinct types depending on the
variations listed above (Maria Dinu, 2009). Stepansky A. et al. (1999) show in a conducted
study which used DNA fingerprints that the differences between the groups or types of
melons are not clearly defined. The existing classifications have a descriptive purpose
resulting in nine different types of melon.
From a commercial perspective there are three main groups of yellow melons: the
cantaloupe melons group (var. cantalupensis); the reticulatus melons group (var.
reticulatus) and winter melons group (var. inodorus).
The importance of cultivars used in culture is represented by their potential to meet
the technological, food, medical and finally the financial requirements (Niculescu A., 2011).
In Romania, in the urban areas, the aromatic yellow, juicy and sweet melons are
preferred as refreshing fruits during summer. In the country side there are preferred the
mealy fruit pulp that are consumed all the time especially from the inhabitants own culture.
Worldwide, the cultivation of this species recorded a significant growth due to the
increasing demands on consumption, on the one hand, and on the other hand due to the
use for therapeutic, cosmetic and industrial purposes. Apart from the melon fruit pulp, the
seeds, flowers or plant roots are also consumed which have a number of medicinal
properties.
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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, seria Agricultură – Montanologie – Cadastru (Annals of the University of Craiova - Agriculture,
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The emergence of new vegetables on the Romanian market can have multiple
benefits such as a good profit for the producers, the opportunities of diversifying people's
food, by introducing in the diet vegetables with high biological value. (Rodica Soare et al.,
2016).
The melon fruits are normally consumed at full physiological maturity, but they can
be consumed at technological maturity too because in comparison with other species of
the Cucurbitaceae family, at this stage they have the lowest content of cucumerine that is
toxic to the human body.
The importance in terms of food is given to palatability (taste, juiciness, texture)
which differs depending on cultivar and maturity. They are consumed with pleasure
because of the content in sugars (glucose, fructose, etc.) (Lester and Hodges, 2008),
carotenes, vitamin C, minerals, etc.
The present study aimed at highlighting the biochemical properties of the melon fruit
cultivar and their selection to constitute the assortment in culture.
MATERIAL AND METHOD
The melon fruits are from a culture founded in solar greenhouse in the south-
western part of Romania (44°19'N and 23°48 'E). The applied technology was the classical
one for the melon culture in solar greenhouse. They were planted at 2 m between plant
rows and 80 cm between plants in the row.
The fruits were harvested at physiological maturity, transported to the laboratory of
biochemistry, washed with distilled water to remove the dust and to lower the temperature
and they were stored at 8-100C and 80-85% relative humidity of air.
Physicochemical and nutritional evaluation
All the studied parameters in the fruit mesocarp of the melon were made after
removing the placenta with seeds and fruits peel of five fruits from each cultivar. The
mesocarp was placed in a blender for 1 minute resulting in a homogeneous mash. The
experiments were carried out in four repetitions, and the results were expressed as the
average of repetitions.
Total soluble solids
The Abbe hand refractometer was used for measuring total soluble solids (TSS)
in extracted juice. The refractometer measures the refractive index, which indicates how
much a light beam will be slowed down when it passes through the fruit juice,the values
being expressed in °Brix.
Determination of antioxidant compounds
Ascorbic acid
Ascorbic acid was extracted and analyzed by reversedphase HPLC. Fresh melon
homogenate, 5g, was mixed and diluted to 100 ml with 0.1 N HCl. After 30 minutes the
extraction solution was centrifuge dat 4200 rpm for 10 minutes. The supernatant was
filtered through 0,2 μm pore size filter.
The separation was performed using a Hypersil Gold a Q column (25cm x 4,6 mm)
with a particle size of 5 μm while a 50 mM water solution of KH 2PO4 buffer adjusted to pH
2,8 with orto-phosphoric acid was used as the mobile phase. The column temperature was
kept at 10 0C and the flow rate at 0,7 ml min-1. All the results werw expressed in mg kg-1
fw. Acetonitrile was HPLC grade while potassium dihydrogen ortophosphate and
phosphoric acid were of analytical purity. Ultrapure water was obtained from a Milli-Q
water purification system.
Carotenoids
Determination was base don a spectophotometric analysis fllowing the method
developed by Nagata and Yamashita 1992 for the determination carotenoids in melon
fruit. The samples were thawed in the dark in a refrigerator at 4 0C to avoid carotenoid
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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, seria Agricultură – Montanologie – Cadastru (Annals of the University of Craiova - Agriculture,
Montanology, Cadastre Series) Vol. XLVI 2016
oxidation. Sixteen mililiters of acetone/hexane (4:6) solvent werw added to 1.0 g to melon
homogenate and mixed in a test/tube. Automatically, two phases separated, and an aliquot
was taken from the upper solution for measurement of optical density at 663, 645, 505,
and 453 nm in a spectrophotometer (Varian Cary 50 UV/Vis ). Values are reported as mg /
100 g FW.
The total sugar content was measured by a colorimetric test as described by
Frechilla and Manso (1994) using glucose as standard and the absorbance was measured
at 620 nm with a Helios spectrophotometer. The results are expressed as mg/g dry matter.
Quality parameters
The quality characteristics of the melon fruits were determined by a number of 10
people (tasters) that are frequent consumers (Mackey et al., 1973). Cubes from the
mesocarp were tasted that were taken from the equatorial region of the fruit. The
commission members reviewed the internal appearance of the fruit, texture and flavour
and gave them scores up to 10. The table shows the obtained average scores.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The measurements in this study aimed to outline the morphological and biochemical
characteristics of melon fruits from the studied cultivars.
Referring to the average gross weight of fruits (GWF)(Table 1), it is observed that it
ranged from 2,877 g for Polidor cultivar to 950 g for Gustal cultivar. The variation is quite
obvious between cultivars even in comparison to the average of variants which were
considered control plants in this study. The fruit weight must be average in size (1000 g/
fruit).
Table 1
Morphological character and index form the fruits of melon
Cultivars Gross weight fruit Net values fruit Form Amount of seed Report
(GWF) (NVF) index of fruit GWF/NVF
(I.F.)
g/fruit % g/fruit % g % %
Galia 1275 66,6 1155 65,5 1,13 120 80,2 95,6
Solarbel 2320 121,2 2210 119,6 1,12 110 73,6 95,3
Polidor 2877 150,3 2725 154,5 1,58 154 103,0 94,7
Corin 2125 111,0 1977 112,2 1,14 148 99,1 93,0
Gustal 950 49,6 755 42,9 1,25 195 130,5 79,5
Charentais 1935 101,1 1765 100,1 0,89 170 113,8 91,2
Piel de Sapo 1320 68,9 1170 66,3 1,625 150 102,8 94,3
Average of 1913,7 100,0 1764 100,0 - 149,5 100,0 -
variants
The net weight of the fruit calculated after the extraction of seeds from the seminal
cavity recorded variations between cultivars. This was determined by the amount of
extracted seeds. The smallest amount of seeds has been recorded by Solarbel cultivar,
110 g, and the highest amount by Gustal cultivar, 195 g. There were 5 cultivars of
muskmelon that had over 150 g of seeds, being known that in our country they are not
consumed as in the large melon cultivators’ countries such as Spain, Italy, Portugal.
The seminal cavity, through its size, influences the physical quality of fruits and
influences to some extent the storage and transport capacity, i.e. the higher it is, the higher
the content of water is.
Based on the measurements carried out in the fruits on the diameter and height
thereof was determined the form index (FI), which according to the obtained values, they
can determine the character. The fruit shape was generally ovoid-elongated for Polidor
and Piel de Sapo, round-ovoid for Gustal, round for Galia, Solarbel and Corin and flattened
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Analele Universităţii din Craiova, seria Agricultură – Montanologie – Cadastru (Annals of the University of Craiova - Agriculture,
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round for Charentais. This is a variety uninfluenced by culture and environmental
conditions.
Regarding the ratio of the gross weight of the fruits and net values there is observed
that values over 90% are recorded for all cultivars excepting the Gustal cultivar that has a
ratio of 79.5%.
The content of total soluble substance (TSS) ranged from 8.9 to 13.400 Brix. The
lowest values were recorded by the Corin, Gustal and Charentais cultivars, and the
highest by Galia, Solarbel and Polidor cultivars (Table 2). It should be noted that Piel de
Sapo is a cultivar with post-maturation but under the climate conditions of Oltenia it was
matured earlier and recorded the highest content of T.S.S of 13.400 Brix. In general, the
T.S.S content was significantly higher at the modern cultivars than at the traditional
cultivars, as reported by Escribano and Lázaro (2015), excepting Piel de Sapo with the
highest content of all the cultivars. The values recorded in these cultivars are consistent
with those recorded by other researchers such as T. Bianchi et al., 2016.
The carotene content showed great interest recently because of its importance in
human nutrition. The presence of this constituent in melon was studied by Burger et al.,
2006; Hodges and Lester, 2006; Lester and Hodges, 2008. In the present study, this
content ranged from 0.12 to 3.00 mg/g of fresh matter (F.M.). The highest content of
carotene was recorded by the Charantais cultivar followed by Gustal and Corin. The other
4 cultivars had values between 0.12 and 0.20 mg/g F.M., values supported by Escribano
et al., 2010; 2012). The bright orange pulp fruit are valued more by consumers than those
with yellowish-white pulp (Escribano et al., 2010) so we can say that the presence of
carotenoides can be considered as an added value for the melon cultivars .
Table 2
Biochemical composition of fruits melon (average)
Cultivars T.S.S. Carotene Ascorbic acid Total sugar Note the
0
Bx content content (mg/g D.M) composition
(mg/ g F.M) (mg/100 g of
F.M) organoleptic
Galia 10.3 0.12 27.38 466.34 9.4
Solarbel 10.4 0.15 27.10 575.62 9.4
Polidor 11.1 0.20 36.18 546.70 9.2
Corin 9.6 1.87 29.79 623.17 9.4
Gustal 8.9 2.05 28.99 737.12 8.0
Charentais 9.5 3.00 23.89 845.23 9.0
Piel de Sapo 13.40 0.17 26.90 574.68 9.6
The antioxidant activity of vegetable species is a very important quality parameter
from a nutritional standpoint (Maria Dinu et al., 2016).
The ascorbic acid content had values ranging from 23.89 mg/100 g fresh matter at
Charentais to 36.18 mg/100 g FM at Polidor. These values are supported by other studies
too. Katzir et. al., (2008) showed a content of 34.2 mg/100 g FM and Dhillon et al., (2007)
in their study had cultivars with a maximum content of 34.1 mg/100 g F.M.
The presence of sugar in fruits is essential for a healthy and balanced diet. Melon
fruits have a high content of total sugar. It ranged from 466.34 mg/g D.M to 845.23
mg/D.M. These values are supported by Sandra Escribano and Almudena Lázaro (2015)
who in a study of 28 cultivars, including the cultivars studied by us, showed similar values
to those present in this study. The highest value of our study was recorded by Charentais,
of 845.23 mg/100 dry matter, Lester (2008) reported a value of 847 mg/g D.M. at a variety
of melon that has been genetically improved to increase the content of sugar.
The results show the cultivars importance in establishing the variety used in culture
based on their quality parameters which relate to consumer preferences.
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Pairing the sugar content with the ascorbic acid content provides a unique flavour
and desirable for consumers (Burger et al., 2006). The Corin, Gustal, Charentais and Piel
de Sapo cultivars recorded high values of acidity but also recorded high levels of sugars
thus fulfilling the sensory qualities that were observed during tastings. An exception was
Gustar cultivar which had a high content of ascorbic acid, carotene and sugars but
apparently it was not liked by tasters. High levels of ascorbic acid and carotene from
melon is essential for human health (Burger et al., 2006).
After organized tastings for fruit qualitative assessment taking into account all the
characteristics in general, but especially the pulp consistency, flavour and aroma, there
were given grades on a scale of 1 to 10 with values ranging between 8.0 and 9.6 (table 2).
Valuable in this regard were considered the Piel de Sapo, Galia, Solarbel, Corin, Polidor
and Charantais cultivars.
Corelațiile între anumiți parametri de calitate ai fructelor de pepene galben sunt
prezentate în tabelul 3. Corelații semnificativ pozitive s-au găsit între conținutul de caroten
și zahărul total, iar între TSS și acidul ascorbic s-a înregistrat tot corelație pozitivă dar
nesemnificativă. Correlations between certain quality parameters of melon fruit are
presented in Table 3. Significant positive correlations were found between carotene and
total sugar, and between TSS and ascorbic acid were also recorded positive corelations
but insignificant.The literature confirms that when fruits and vegetables with a high content
of carotene are consumed, a powerful antioxidant activity occurs in the body because
between these two elements is a strong correlation.
Table 3
Correlations between chemical compounds analyzed of melon cultivars
Specification Total caroten Acid ascorbic Total sugars
TSS (0Bx) -0.811 0.551 -0.713
Total carotene - 0.474 0.928*
Acid ascorbic -0.472
Total sugars
*Statistically significant at P ˂̲ 0.05=0,81
CONCLUSIONS
This study highlights the importance of knowing the morphological characteristics
and biochemical constituents of melon fruits in order to elect the variety to establish a
culture of melon.
The fruit morphological characteristics are important in the process of storing and
trading. The organoleptic properties observed by tasters offer superior information with low
cost compared with physicochemical methods for determining the biochemical composition
of fruits.
This link between sensory attributes and consumer preferences ensures the
success of some cultivars. The production increases highlight some cultivars that behaved
well in solar greenhouse.
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