Vol 2, Issue 1 (2018)
Published on 2018-02-28
Effects of brittle leaf disease of date palm on the fruit date palm quality at different maturity stages
Abstract:
This work is the first attempt to study the effect of Brittle Leaf Disease BLD on the fruit date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) quality at three maturity stage: Kimri, Khlal and Tamar. Fruits from healthy trees (H) and fruits from affected trees by BLD (A) were evaluated physically: Length, width, weight, color, moisture content (%) and chemically: pH, reducing sugars, mineral content (K, P and Mn). BLD caused a significant decrease on fruit’s length at kimri and tamr stage and it caused a significant increase in fruit’s weight at khlal stage. The BLD has a significant effect on the luminosity at tamr stage and it has no significant effect on pulp moisture content and pH values of fruit date palm. BLD-disease was associated with an increase in reducing sugars at khlal and tamr stage. The fruit date palm from BLD-affected trees had the highest concentrations of P, K and Mn at khlal stage.
Authors:
- Ahmed Namsi
- Sihem Ben Maachia
- Monia Jemni
- Nada Derouich
- Houcine Ben Abdallah
- Mohamed Laid Takrouni
Keywords:
- Fruit date palm
- Parameters
- Fruit quality
- BLD
Pages: 7