PHYSIOLOGICAL CHANGES IN AMAZONIC HOT PEPPER ACCESSIONS DURING GROWTH, RIPENING AND STORAGE

This work describes the physiological behavior of four hot pepper accessions from two species (Capsicum annuum and Capsicum frutescens). Accessions come from the Amazonic pepper germplasm bank collection (Amazonic Institute of Scientific Research, SINCHI). Fruit from all accessions were harvested weekly from fruit set to ripening. Fruits exhibited no climacteric pattern, with respiration rate lower than 100 mg CO 2 .kg -1 .h -1 and ethylene production below 0.01 μL C 2 H 4 .kg -1 .h -1 . In accession CS49 (C. annuum), the color change from pale green to red was evident only at the full ripening stage. In accessions CS219 (C. annuum) and CS376 (C. frutescens), the color, as measured by Hue angle or H*, changed from green (H*=104°) to yellow (H*=79°) or orange (H*=57°), respectively, and was useful as a maturity index.[...]