HEAT OF RESPIRATION FOR INDIAN FRUITS

Abstract

Data regarding the heat of respiration of Indian fruits is scarce. An enormous loss of these perishable commodities occur in India due to inadequate cold storage facilities. The extension of cold storage facilities to these perishable fruits requires measurement of their heat of respiration to help refrigeration design engineers to find refrigeration load in cold storages. -In the present work, rates of carbondioxide production by a particular weight of specimen fruits, at a definite temperature were determined with the help of a experimental set up, developed for this purpose. The rate of CO2 production could be translated into the rate of heat production by the product. Respiration rates were measured at two temperatures viz., the room temperature and. the recommended cold storage temperat-ure, for Grapes,Guava, i,Musambi and Sapodilla. The respiration rates obtained for Grapes and Guava were compared with those published in the literature and were found to lie in the range of values reported in the. literature. Therefif ter, respiration rates for Piusambi and Sapodilla were determined, for which no published dates were available.