Mango is greatly relished for its succulence, exotic flavour and delicious taste in most countries of the world. Apart from its delicacy, it is a nutritionally important fruit being a good source of vitamin A, B and C, and minerals.
Mango is seasonal fruit and about 20 percent of the fruits are processed for products such as puree, nectar, leather, canned slice and chutney, juices, ice cream, fruit bars, and pies.
Ripe mangoes are a good source of carotenoids. The rate of total carotenoid accumulation in mangoes is slow during the initial growth stages, but increases as the fruits approach maturity.
The ripe fruit varies in size, shape, color, sweetness, and eating quality. Cultivars are variously yellow, orange, red, or green, and carry a single flat, oblong pit that can be fibrous or hairy on the surface, and which does not separate easily from the pulp. Often red on the side facing the sun and yellow were shaded, a mango that us green usually indicates unripe fruit, but this depends on the cultivar.
The fruits may be somewhat round, oval, or kidney-shaped, ranging from 5 – 25 cm in length and from 140 gms to 2 kgs in weight per individual fruit.
The skin is leather -like, waxy, smooth, and fragrant, with color ranging from green to yellow, yellow-orange, yellow-red, or blushed with various shades of red, purple, pink or yellow when fully ripe.
Mango seed is a single flat oblong seed that can be fibrous or hairy on the surface, depending on the variety. Inside the seed coat, 1-2 mm thick is a thin lining covering a single embryo, 4-7 cm long and 3-4 cm wide.
Mangoes are perishable and large quantities are wasted during processing, packing, storage and transportation each year. Therefore, several techniques have been applied to process mangoes into a variety of products to increase its value and improve shelf life, such as pulping into nectar and juice concentrates, and drying/dehydrating.
Physical properties of mango fruit
