Determination of some physical properties of Plum (cv. Kala Amritsari) fruits

Abstract

The present study was carried out to determine the physical properties of plum (cv. Kala Amritsari) which will be helpful for the design of fruit processing machineries. The fruits were graded in two categories viz. smaller (S) and bigger (B) on the basis of physical appearance. Moisture content of the fruit pulp was 85.19±0.54 % (w.b). Linear dimensions of ‘S’ fruits were: major intercept (19.41±1.96 mm), minor intercept (16.79±1.46 mm), geometric mean diameter (18.48±1.72 mm), arithmetic mean diameter (3.31±0.12 mm), sphericity (0.79±0.03), surface area (1082.59± 120.81 mm2) and aspect ratio (1.15±0.17), while the corresponding values for ‘B’ fruit were, 25.15±0.77 mm, 23.61±0.30 mm, 24.49±0.41 mm, 3.17±0.08 mm, 0.98±0.02, 1901.98±66.93 mm2, 1.08±0.15, respectively. The density values in terms of bulk density were 660±27.54 kgm-3 (S), 473±18.69 kgm-3 (B), true density 1213±58.3 kgm-3 (S), 1120±47.28 kgm-3 (B) and porosity 45.6±5.30 (S), 56.8±7.28 (B) were also recorded. Colour values in terms of L (33.62±2.04), a (66.87±6.75), b (10.24±2.62) for ‘S’ fruits and for ‘B’ fruits L (37.38±1.88), a (61.25±5.91) and b (12.28±2.66) were observed. The average fruit weight, pulp weight and seed weight for ‘S’ grade fruits was 32.35±4.25 g, 28.74±3.50 g, 1.09±0.32 g, while for ‘B’ grade fruits it was 38.14±5.33 g, 33.57±6.53 g, 1.73±0.26, respectively.