Productivity and juice quality of different passion fruit cultivars grown in northwest region of Rio de Janeiro

Resumo

Brazil is the major world producer of passion fruits. This culture is an alternative for small farms due to the fast economic gain and monetary income distributed throughout the year. The intense occurrence of plant diseases in commercial orchards forced the development of new cultivars. The objective of this work was to characterize the fruit productivity, the pulp yield and the juice quality of improved passion fruit cultivars: BRS Gigante amarelo (GA), BRS Ouro vermelho (OV) and BRS Sol do Cerrado (SC), comparing to the Common Yellow (CY) passion fruit normally grown in the orchards. Juice quality was evaluated by titratable acidity (TA), pH, total soluble solids (TSS), ratio TSS/TA, total soluble sugars (SS), reducing sugars (RS) and ascorbic acid (AA) contents. BRS GA presented the higher fruit productivity and juice yield, but the lower rind thickness. Its content of TA was similar to the CY passion fruit. The three cultivars presented higher contents of RS and TSS than CY passion fruit, with higher value of SS for the BRS GA. The content of AA was similar among the different cultivars. BRS GA was considered as more productive and with better juice quality