Experimental Determination of Fruit Cuticle Moisture Permeability

DANIEL RICARDO ERCOLI; MERCEDES LEOBONO; GRACIELA SUSANA GOIZUETA; CRISTINA RATTI

Palma de Mayorca

Conferencia; European Drying Conference - EuroDrying'2011; 2011

The cuticle (cuticular membrane) of plants is a noncellular, nonliving, lipoidal membrane forming a major barrier to water and solutes movement into and out of plants. Its moisture permeability depends on composition, microstructure, the solid state (crystalline or amorphous) of the matrix, and the lipid and glass transitions occurred during cooling or heating. The cuticle is composed of a biopolymer, cutin, with embedded intracuticular waxes; further waxes may be deposited on the surface of the cuticle as an epicuticular wax layer. The epicuticular wax may form a partial or continuous layer of amorphous wax over the surface of higher plants, and, in many fruits, crystalline wax structures are extruded to the external surface giving fruits their characteristic waxy bloom. The presence of wax in the cuticle is the main reason why whole berries, such as raisins, cranberries or blueberries, have an extremely slow drying rate and require skin pretreatments prior to dehydration in order to accelerate moisture loss. The experimental determination of moisture permeability of fruit cuticles is therefore the first step in the study of skin pretreatments. In this work, an experimental protocol for the determination of cuticle permeability will be developed in order to assess moisture transfer through apple, tomato and eggplant skins