ABSTRACT
The objective of this work was to morphologically characterize 15 banana cultivars and assess the physical and chemical characteristics of their fruits at two maturation stages, unripe (pre-climacteric) and ripening. The plants were evaluated regarding their pseudostem height and diameter, petiole length, leaf blade length, width and length-to-width ratio. The cultivar Ouro had fruits with lower diameter, total length, market weight and fresh weight at both stages, and also firmer pulp when they were unripe. The cultivar Caru-Roxa had higher fresh fruit and pulp weights, and the cultivar Terrinha had the highest percentage of pulp dry weight percentage in unripe and ripe fruits. The cultivars Maçã and Ouro had higher pulp-to-peel ratio in unripe fruits. The ripe peels had lower fresh weight and thickness and higher dry weight percentage compared to unripe peels. The fruit peel of the cultivar Marmelo had the highest fresh weight at both stages. The cultivars Marmelo and Maçã had higher percentage of peel dry weight percentage at both stages. The unripe pulp had lower soluble solids. The titratable acidity in the pulp increased with ripening. The average plant height ranged from 2.25 to 6.15 m. The cultivars that had the largest pseudostem diameters had also the highest heights, except the Prata-Anã and Prata-Graúda. The cultivar and maturity stage influenced all the characteristics evaluated in fruits, except the total and market lengths, which did not vary with the ripening of fruits.
Keywords:
Musa spp.; Physical and chemical characteristics; Agronomic characterization; Production.