Revaluation of underutilized lemon fruits of southeastern Spain as a potential source of bioactive compounds and to be used in creative cuisine

In the present research colour, weight, morphological parameters and total antioxidant activity (TAA) of the edible tissues of three underutilised cultivars of lemon fruits was quantified. In addition, other fruit quality properties, such as organics acids and sugars concentrations in the lemon juices were analysed. Also, the evaluation of organoleptic attributes, such as sweetness, aroma, firmness, lack of bitterness, overall impression and notable feature of fruits was performed by a sensory panel. Results show significant differences on the analysed parameters among lemon cultivars. The relative proportion of each fruit tissue was similar for the three cultivars. 'Fino' and 'Sanguino' lemons showed the highest TAA, while the most appreciated by consumers according to the sensory panel results was 'Sanguino' lemon which could be due to their original colour. These traditional cultivars of lemon fruits could be used as ingredients in creative cuisine due to their attractive properties providing also nutritional and antioxidant compounds

Elche dates (phoenix dactylifera l.) responses to different post-harvest exogenous treatment

[SPA] Los dátiles recolectados en el palmeral de Elche, el más grande de Europa, se encarecen por 3 razones básicamente: 1-como la reproducción tradicionalmente ha sido por semillas, existe una gran variabilidad y por tanto poca homogeneidad del producto. 2-Como la maduración de los dátiles es muy heterogénea dentro de un racimo, son necesarias varias recolecciones para obtener todos los dátiles de una palmera. 3- Como maduran en otoño, hay riesgo de lluvias, lo que ocasiona grandes pérdidas de dátiles. Por estas razones, se han estudiado dátiles que pertenecen a palmeras de 3 huertos denominados Caqui, Los Olmos y Los Cherros. El objetivo de este trabajo ha sido estudiar la efectividad de los tratamientos con ácido acético, congelación o vaporización de dátiles en estado khalal, para acelerar su maduración artificialmente y poder recolectar los dátiles por racimos enteros y antes de las lluvias, lo que aumentaría la producción de dátiles y a menor coste, a la vez que aumentaría la época en la que podrían salir al mercado. Para ello se han estudiado en los dátiles antes y después del tratamiento, el peso, para estudiar las posibles pérdidas debidas a los tratamientos, la firmeza, los sólidos solubles totales, acidez, índice de madurez y el color externo, así como un test organoléptico. Los resultados indican que los dátiles pertenecientes a los huertos Caqui y Los Olmos han madurado con buena calidad organoléptica al ser tratados con ácido acético y al congelamiento, pero no se ha conseguido dátiles de calidad por el método de vaporización en ningún tipo de dátil. Sin embargo, los dátiles de Los Cherros no han madurado con buen estado organoléptico con ningún tratamiento. [ENG] Dates harvested from Elche grove, the biggest within Europe, became expensive due to three reasons: 1- Plant reproduction has been traditionally through seeds, therefore products present a high variability, 2- Date ripening within a cluster is heterogeneous, therefore several harvests are needed to obtain all the fruits form a palm tree, 3- Ripening occurs during autumn, when rain can cause lose of yield. Date fruits from different palm trees belonging to 3 orchards, Caqui, Los Olmos and Los Cherros have been studied. The aim off the present work has been to study the effectiveness of three ripening treatments during khalal stage: acetic acid, freezing and vaporization, to accelerate ripening artificially. This will allow us to collect all dates from a cluster at the same time and before the rains, which would increase date yield, at a lower cost, and also would increase the marketing period. Different parameters have been measured in date fruits before and after the treatments, as: fresh weight, firmness, total soluble solids, acidity, ripening index, external colour and also an organoleptic test was carried out. Results indicated that dates from Caqui and Los Olmos orchards have ripen with a good organoleptic quality when treated with acetic acid and freezing treatment, but not quality dates were obtained with vaporization treatment. Dates fruits from Los Cherros orchard did not present a good sensorial analysis under any of the ripening treatments.Agradecemos a la empresa Viveros Huerto del Cura S.A. la donación del material vegetal, sin el cual no se hubiera podido realizar este trabajo