Physicochemical and Rheological Characterization of Melon Pulp (Cucumis melo) Cultivated in the North of Bolívar Department, Colombia

Abstract

Melon (Cucumis melo) is a fruit of great national importance. However, it is not exploited in our region due to producers insufficient negotiating capacity and the lack of infrastructure and technical training, which causes losses of these products, especially at harvest time. Therefore, it is necessary to study its physicochemical and rheological properties to optimize the different processing methods. The main objective of this research is the study of the physicochemical and rheological properties of fresh melon pulp (Cucumis melo) from the northern area of the Bolivar department, Colombia, as a contribution to science and agro-industry, for which the physicochemical characterization was performed following AOAC methods, and the rheological characterization was performed by flow tests at steady state in a temperature range of 10-60°C. The pulp rheological properties evaluation were analyzed according to the temperature variation. The tests were conducted using a Modular System Rheometer Haake Mars Advanced 60. The pulp yield was 83.74% of the whole fruit; physicochemical parameters were similar to those studied previously by other authors. The melon pulp had a non-Newtonian pseudoplastic behavior (shear thinning) in all cases with reduction of temperature, the relation between the viscosity and the deformation rate adjusted the Carreau-Yasuda model (R2> 0, 97264). These results provide information on the melon pulp rheological behavior and may have potential application in the agro-industrial sector for the design of processes to manufacture products from this raw material.