Exploration of Foods and Foodomics

Table 3. Means ± standard deviation for total carotenoids (µg total carotenoids/100 g pulp) and CIELAB color values (L*, a*, b*) and calculated color attributes in A. triloba from the 2023 harvest year for ripe and overripe pulp during 21-day refrigerated storage

Measurement	Ripe				Overripe
Measurement	Day 0	Day 7	Day 14	Day 21	Day 0	Day 7	Day 14	Day 21
Total carotenoids	307 ± 114^d	243 ± 24^d	148 ± 33^d	221 ± 68^d	1,140 ± 101^b	1,353 ± 134^a	1,201 ± 149^ab	878 ± 190^c
L*	78.5 ± 0.4^a	42.7 ± 2.1^de	40.5 ± 1.1^de	39.1 ± 0.4^e	65.5 ± 1.7^b	47.9 ± 3.7^c	47.4 ± 1.3^c	43.3 ± 3.1^d
a*	1.6 ± 0.7^c	16.3 ± 0.9^a	17.2 ± 0.7^a	15.6 ± 0.3^a	10.8 ± 0.4^b	15.0 ± 5.9^ab	17.1 ± 1.3^a	15.7 ± 3.0^a
b*	22.2 ± 1.0^d	29.0 ± 1.1^bc	29.3 ± 1.1^bc	22.3 ± 0.5^cd	41.3 ± 1.3^a	28.7 ± 6.2^bc	32.9 ± 1.6^b	27.2 ± 3.3^abc
Ratio a/b	0.07 ± 0.03^d	0.57 ± 0.05^ab	0.59 ± 0.01^ab	0.70 ± 0.30^a	0.26 ± 0.02^c	0.51 ± 0.11^b	0.52 ± 0.06^b	0.58 ± 0.13^ab
Hue angle	85.9 ± 1.8^a	60.6 ± 2.2^cd	59.5 ± 0.6^cd	54.6 ± 7.2^d	75.2 ± 1.2^b	63.0 ± 5.2^c	62.6 ± 2.7^c	60.1 ± 5.6^cd
Chroma	22.3 ± 1.0^d	33.3 ± 0.7^bc	34.0 ± 1.2^bc	27.4 ± 2.3^cd	42.7 ± 6.6^a	32.5 ± 8.0^bc	37.1 ± 1.2^ab	31.5 ± 3.3^bc
Total color change (ΔE)	-	39.4 ± 1.9^ab	41.7 ± 0.6^a	41.9 ± 0.4^a	25.2 ± 5.0^c	34.4 ± 6.8^b	36.4 ± 1.6^ab	38.4 ± 3.7^ab
Browning index	33.6 ± 2.6^c	160.8 ± 7.2^ab	180.2 ± 3.5^a	136.5 ± 22.2^ab	116.5 ± 24.5^b	139.5 ± 73.7^ab	162.2 ± 14.8^ab	145.3 ± 27.5^ab
L* decrease (%)	-	45.6 ± 2.6^ab	48.4 ± 1.3^ab	50.2 ± 1.3^a	16.7 ± 1.5^d	38.9 ± 4.7^c	39.6 ± 1.7^c	44.8 ± 3.9^b
Whiteness index	69.0 ± 1.0^a	33.7 ± 1.5^cd	31.5 ± 0.3^d	33.2 ± 1.8^cd	44.9 ± 4.9^b	38.5 ± 7.4^c	35.6 ± 1.7^cd	35.1 ± 3.0^cd
Color index	0.09 ± 0.4^c	1.33 ± 0.2^b	1.45 ± 0.5^ab	1.84 ± 0.5^a	0.40 ± 0.4^c	1.08 ± 0.3^b	1.10 ± 0.1^b	1.36 ± 0.4^b
Yellowness index	40.5 ± 1.9^b	97.0 ± 1.1^a	103.3 ± 1.6^a	81.9 ± 15.8^a	90.2 ± 13.9^a	86.9 ± 26.1^a	99.3 ± 6.8^a	89.9 ± 9.5^a

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^a–e Different superscripts within a row indicate significant differences between the means for that attribute (p < 0.05)

Declarations

Author contributions

RB: Conceptualization, Investigation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Project administration, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. DON: Investigation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. MJ: Investigation, Methodology, Writing—review & editing.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

Not applicable.

Consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent to publication

Not applicable.

Availability of data and materials

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this manuscript will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation, to any qualified researcher.

Funding

Partial financial support was received by the Ohio University Student Enhancement Award [#12208-14-4530051]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Copyright

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Open Exploration maintains a neutral stance on jurisdictional claims in published institutional affiliations and maps. All opinions expressed in this article are the personal views of the author(s) and do not represent the stance of the editorial team or the publisher.

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