Thesis (M. Sc. (Horticulture)) -- University of Limpopo, 2018 / ‘Hass’ avocado fruit changes skin colour from green to purple and then black during ripening. However, markets importing South African avocado fruit have been complaining about the ‘Hass’ skin colour not changing to purple/black during ripening. Thus, the study aimed to investigate the effect of tree girdling, harvest time and ripening temperature on ‘Hass’ avocado fruit skin colour development during ripening. The mature ‘Hass’ avocado fruit were harvested from girdled and non-girdled trees during early (April), mid- (May) and late (June) harvest times. Upon arrival, in the laboratory fruit were cold stored at 5.5°C for 28 days. After storage, fruit were ripened at 25, 21 and 16°C for 8, 6 and 4 days, respectively. After withdrawal from clod storage fruit were evaluated for skin colour development, ripening and physiological disorders (chilling injury). Fruit from girdled trees showed high maturity (low moisture content) when compared with fruit from non-girdled trees during early and mid-harvest. With respect to skin colour development, the results indicate that skin eye colour development of fruit from girdled and non-girdled trees minimally increased from emerald green (1) to olive green (3) across all harvest times, ripening temperature and ripening duration. However, late season fruit from non-girdled trees improved to purple (4) when ripened at 21°C when compared with fruit from girdled trees. In terms of objective colour, lightness, hue angle and chroma decreased for fruit from girdled and non-girdled trees, across all harvest times, ripening temperature and ripening duration. Lightness and hue angle of fruit from girdled trees were slightly reduced when compared with fruit from non-girdled trees, throughout all harvest times, ripening temperature and duration. Early and mid-season fruit harvested from girdled trees showed rapid decrease of chroma when compared with fruit from non-girdled trees, throughout ripening temperature and x duration. In terms of softening, fruit from girdled trees showed higher firmness loss and ripening percentage within 6 (16°C) and 4 (21 and 25°C) days when compared with fruit from non-girdled trees during early and mid-harvest, whereas, late harvest fruit from girdled trees reached higher ripening percentage and firmness loss within 4 days throughout ripening temperatures. With respect to cold damage, late harvested fruit from girdled trees showed higher external chilling injury when compared with non-girdled trees, throughout ripening temperature. In general, girdling treatment improved fruit maturity, ripening rate and firmness loss. However, the incidence of variable skin colouring of ‘Hass’ avocado fruit during ripening was also prevalent in early harvested fruit from girdled tree, irrespective of ripening temperature. Keywords: girdling, harvest time, physiological disorder, ripening temperature, variable colouring

Thesis (M.Sc. (Horticulture)) --University of Limpopo, 2018 / ‘Hass’ avocado fruit changes skin colour from green to purple and then black during ripening. However, markets importing South African avocado fruit have been complaining about the ‘Hass’ skin colour not changing to purple/black during ripening. Thus, the study aimed to investigate the effect of tree girdling, harvest time and ripening temperature on ‘Hass’ avocado fruit skin colour development during ripening. The mature ‘Hass’ avocado fruit were harvested from girdled and non-girdled trees during early (April), mid- (May) and late (June) harvest times. Upon arrival, in the laboratory fruit were cold stored at 5.5°C for 28 days. After storage, fruit were ripened at 25, 21 and 16°C for 8, 6 and 4 days, respectively. After withdrawal from clod storage fruit were evaluated for skin colour development, ripening and physiological disorders (chilling injury). Fruit from girdled trees showed high maturity (low moisture content) when compared with fruit from non-girdled trees during early and mid-harvest. With respect to skin colour development, the results indicate that skin eye colour development of fruit from girdled and non-girdled trees minimally increased from emerald green (1) to olive green (3) across all harvest times, ripening temperature and ripening duration. However, late season fruit from non-girdled trees improved to purple (4) when ripened at 21°C when compared with fruit from girdled trees. In terms of objective colour, lightness, hue angle and chroma decreased for fruit from girdled and non-girdled trees, across all harvest times, ripening temperature and ripening duration. Lightness and hue angle of fruit from girdled trees were slightly reduced when compared with fruit from non-girdled trees, throughout all harvest times, ripening temperature and duration. Early and mid-season fruit harvested from girdled trees showed rapid decrease of chroma when compared with fruit from non-girdled trees, throughout ripening temperature and x duration. In terms of softening, fruit from girdled trees showed higher firmness loss and ripening percentage within 6 (16°C) and 4 (21 and 25°C) days when compared with fruit from non-girdled trees during early and mid-harvest, whereas, late harvest fruit from girdled trees reached higher ripening percentage and firmness loss within 4 days throughout ripening temperatures. With respect to cold damage, late harvested fruit from girdled trees showed higher external chilling injury when compared with non-girdled trees, throughout ripening temperature. In general, girdling treatment improved fruit maturity, ripening rate and firmness loss. However, the incidence of variable skin colouring of ‘Hass’ avocado fruit during ripening was also prevalent in early harvested fruit from girdled tree, irrespective of ripening temperature. Keywords: girdling, harvest time, physiological disorder, ripening temperature, variable colouring

After-ripening, the process of seed dormancy loss in dry storage is associated with a decrease in the mean base water potential, one of the parameters of hydrothermal time. The rate of change of the mean base water potential is assumed to be a linear function of temperature above a specific base temperature and as a result can be described by a thermal after-ripening (TAR) time model, an extension of hydrothermal modelling. The thermal requirement for after-ripening is the thermal time necessary for the modelling base water potential of the seed to shift from its original value to its final value. In order to include the effects of water potential on the rate of dormancy loss, a hydrothermal after-ripening (HTAR) time model was developed. Laboratory and field studies were conducted using seeds of Bromus tectorum. These studies identified four important ranges of water potential that influence the rate of dormancy loss. The ranges are identified as follows: seeds experiencing soil water potentials seeds experiencing soil water potentials <-400 MPa do not after-ripen, between -400 MPa and -150 MPa seeds after-ripen as a function of temperature (T) and water potential (Ψ), seeds experiencing water potentials >-150 MPa after-ripen as a linear function of temperature, and somewhere above -40 MPa seeds are too wet to after-ripen. These ranges suggest that specific reaction thresholds associated with non-fully imbibed seeds also apply to the process of after-ripening. The HTAR model for B. tectorum seeds generally improved predictions of dormancy loss in the field under soil conditions that were too dry for TAR alone. Reduced after-ripening rate under extremely dry conditions is ecologically relevant in explaining how seeds may prolong dormancy under high soil temperature conditions.

Recent advancements in nanotechnology and emerging applications of nanomaterials in various fields have stimulated interest in fundamental scientific research dealing with the size and structure controlled synthesis of nanoparticles. The unique properties of nanoparticles are largely size dependent which could be tuned further by varying shape, structure, and surface properties, etc. The preparation of monodisperse nanoparticles is desirable for many applications due to better control over properties and higher performance compared to polydispersity nanoparticles. There are several methods for the synthesis of nanoparticles based on top-down and bottom-up approaches. The main disadvantage of top-down approach is the difficulty in achieving size control. Whereas, uniform nanoparticles with controllable size could be obtained by chemical methods but most of them are difficult to scale up. Moreover, a separate step of size separation is necessary in order to achieve monodispersed which may lead to material loss. In this context, a post-synthetic size modification process known as digestive ripening is highly significant. In this process, addition of a capping agent to poly disperse colloid renders it highly monodisperse either under ambient or thermal conditions. In addition to size control, digestive ripening is also effective in controlling the structure of nanoparticles in colloidal solution comprising two different elements. Use of co-digestive ripening strategy in conjunction with solvated metal atom dispersion (SMAD) method of synthesis resulted in hetero structures such as core–shell, alloy, and composite nanoparticles. Despite the versatility of digestive ripening process, the underlying mechanism in controlling size and structure of nanoparticles are not understood to date. The aim of this thesis is to gain mechanistic insight into size control of digestive ripening as well as to investigate structure control in various binary systems. Objectives  Study digestive ripening of Au nanoparticles using various alkyl amines to probe the mechanism  Study co-digestive ripening of binary colloids consisting of two metals, Pd and Cu prepared separately by SMAD method  Study co-digestive ripening of binary colloids consisting of a metal (Au) and a semiconductor (CdS) prepared separately by SMAD method  Study vaporization of bulk brass in SMAD reactor and analyse phase, structure, and morphology of various Cu/Zn bimetallic nanoparticles obtained from bulk brass under various experimental conditions Significant results In chapter 1, fundamental processes of nanoparticle formation and common synthetic techniques for the preparation of monodisperse nanoparticles are briefly discussed. Chapter 2 presents a mechanistic study of digestive ripening process with regard to size control using Au nanoparticles as a model system. Three long chain alkyl amine molecules having different chain length were used as digestive ripening agents. The course of digestive ripening process was analysed by UV-visible spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The experimental conditions such as concentration of digestive ripening agent, time, and temperature were found to influence the size distribution of nanoparticles. The average particle size was found to be characteristic of metal-digestive ripening agent combination which is considered as the optimum size preferred during digestive ripening under a given set of experimental conditions. This study discusses stabilization of optimum sized particles, surface etching, and reversibility in digestive ripening. Chapter 3 describes the synthesis and characterization of PdCu alloy nanoparticles by co-digestive ripening method. Syntheses of individual Pd and Cu colloids were carried out by SMAD method. Pd nanoparticles obtained using THF as solvent and in the absence of any capping agent resulted in an extended small Pd nanowire network assembly. Morphological evolution of spherical Pd nanoparticles from Pd nanowire network structure was observed with the use of capping agent, hexadecyl amine (HDA) in SMAD method. Co-digestive ripening of Pd and Cu colloids was studied at various temperatures. This study revealed temperature dependent diffusion of Cu atoms into Pd lattice forming PdCu alloy nanoparticles. Next, co-digestive ripening of a colloidal system comprising a metal and a semiconductor was explored. Au-CdS combination was chosen for this study owing to its interesting photocatalytic properties. Chapter 4 deals with the synthesis of Au and CdS nanoparticles by SMAD method and Au/CdS nanocomposite by co-digestive ripening. CdS nanoparticles of size 4.0 + 1.2 nm and Au nanoparticles of size 5.6 + 1.1 nm were obtained as a result of digestive ripening process. Au/CdS nanocomposite obtained by co-digestive ripening was characterized by a matrix-like structure made up of CdS nanoparticles in which Au nanoparticles were embedded. CdS nanoparticles were found to establish an intimate surface contact with Au nanoparticles and the matrix of CdS surrounding Au was developed via aggregation during digestive ripening. Chapter 5 describes a comprehensive study on various Cu/Zn bimetallic nanoparticles obtained from bulk brass. Vaporization of bulk brass in SMAD reactor led to a deploying process and further growth of nanoparticles from phase separated Cu and Zn atoms formed a composite structure. The characterization of Cu/Zn nanocomposite revealed covering of composite surface with Cu resulting in a core-shell structure, Cu/Zn@Cu. Post-synthetic digestive ripening of these core-shell composite particles showed diffusion of Zn atoms to the composite surface in addition to size and shape modification. Annealing of Cu/Zn nanocomposites prepared in THF resulted in α-CuZn alloy nanoparticles via sequential transformation through η-CuZn5, γ-Cu5Zn8, and β-CuZn (observed as marten site) phases.

Thesis (M.Sc. Agriculture (Horticultrure)) -- University of Limpopo, 2017 / The current South African ‘Hass’ type avocado cultivars are inadequate to enhance competitiveness, cultivar diversity and profitability. In an effort to ensure competitiveness and maintain sustainability, the Agricultural Research CouncilInstitute for Tropical and Subtropical Crops (ARC-ITSC) as one the South African Avocado Industry’s (SAAI) main stakeholder, has bred and selected new superior ‘Hass’ type avocado selections. However, the cold storage potential and associated physico-chemical ripening properties of these selections (‘Jalna’, ‘OA 184’ and ‘Balboa’) have not been documented. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of cold storage on internal and external physico-chemical ripening variables of the new ‘Hass’ type avocado selections. New ‘Hass’ type avocado fruit maturity was evaluated using moisture content, thereafter, harvested, sorted, graded and stored under two temperature regimes (2.0°C and 5.5°C) for 28 days to simulate export conditions. The experiment was a completely randomised factorial design with three treatment factors; temperature regimes (2.0°C and 5.5°C), days to ripening and ‘Hass’ type avocado selections fruit and control (commercial ‘Hass’) replicated three times. After withdrawal from cold storage, fruit were ripened at ambient temperature and evaluated for electrical conductivity, external chilling injury, fruit water loss, skin colour change, ripening percentage, firmness, respiration rate and seed:fruit weight ratio. Results indicated that treatment factors had no significant effect on moisture content (P=0.733) and chilling injury (P=0.776). Treatment factors had a significant effect on electrical conductivity (P=0.004), skin colour parameters; eye colour (P<0.001), hue angle (P<0.001), lightness (P=0.011) and chroma (P=0.042). Selection ‘Jalna’ fruit started changing colour whilst in storage (2.0°C and 5.5°C). Furthermore, ‘Hass’ type avocado selection fruit followed a declining pattern for lightness, chroma and hue angle in agreement with commercial ‘Hass’. Moreover, results indicated that treatment factors had a significant effect (P<0.001) on respiration rate, fruit firmness, ripening percentage and seed:fruit weight ratio. Selection ‘Jalna’ and ‘OA 184’ desynchronised mesocarp softening with exocarp due to genetically non-softening exocarp. Treatment factors had no significant effect (P=0.998) on fruit water loss during ripening. Selection ‘OA 184’ fruit showed export potential due to its good storage, ripening physico-chemical and shelf-life properties. Studies on cold sterilisation would add more value on generated scientific information, as such would enable the SAAI to gain access to high paying export markets. In addition, the selections should be planted and evaluated in other avocado producing region

La tension interfaciale est une grandeur physico-chimique d'intérêt pour de nombreuses industries et notamment l'industrie pétrolière. Cette grandeur est l'un des paramètres qui permet d'optimiser le rendement d'un puits de pétrole. La difficulté liée à sa mesure dans les conditions réservoirs a amené à étudier les systèmes eau/tensioactif/huile par simulation moléculaire. Ce travail a permis de montrer que la Dynamique Particulaire Dissipative (DPD) était un outil adapté pour l’étude de systèmes eau/tensioactif/huile sous différents aspects, de la caractérisation de la structure des interfaces au calcul de la tension interfaciale. Cette thèse a permis la démonstration de l’influence non-négligeable de la variation des paramètres de la force harmonique, l’amplitude K et la distance d’équilibre r0 , sur le calcul de la tension interfaciale et sur la structure des interfaces à forte concentration en tensioactif. En effet, la structure des tensioactifs aux interfaces est le résultat d’une balance subtile entre les forces intra et inter moléculaire. L’étude d’une population modèle de tensioactifs non chargés a permis de montrer que la DPD reproduit bien l'évolution de la tension interfaciale en fonction de la concentration en tensioactif en solution et en fonction du coefficient de partage de tensioactifs modèles non chargés. Une méthodologie est proposée pour caractériser les systèmes contenant des interfaces et où la tension interfaciale est calculée.Des travaux prospectifs ont permis de montrer que la DPD permettait d'étudier des phénomènes liés à la tension interfaciale comme le mûrissement d'Ostwald dans les émulsions d'huile dans l'eau. Ces derniers travaux ouvrent la voie à l’étude d’autres systèmes d’intérêt pour le milieu pétrolier comme le décollement de gouttes de pétroles adsorbées sur des parois ou l’étude d’émulsions pétrolières. / The interfacial tension is a physical-chemical property that numerous industrial areas have an interest of especially the petroleum industry. This property is one of the many which helps to optimize production wells' rate of return. Measuring that property in reservoir's conditions (high pressure and temperature) is highly difficult and led to study water/surfactant/oil systems using molecular modeling. The difficulty to measure that specific physical-chemical property linked to the pressure and temperature conditions in the reservoirs led the scientists to study water/surfactant/oil systems using molecular modeling. This thesis establishes that the Dissipative Particle Dynamics (DPD) is able to study water/surfactant/oil systems. The study of the effect of the variation of the harmonic force's parameters, namely the force constant K and the equilibrium distance r0, demonstrated that their variation can heavily influence the interfacial tension computation. Actually, a subtle balance exists between the intra and inter-molecular interactions, which influences the local structure of the surfactants at the oil-water interface, modifies the interfacial tension and influences the interface stability. It was demonstrated that DPD reproduces the variation of interfacial tension with the bulk surfactant concentration and the effect of the variation of hydrophobicity of models of un-charged surfactants on interfacial tension by mean of their coefficient partition. We established a method to properly study systems containing interfaces where interfacial tension is computed. Prospective work showed that DPD was a good tool to study microscopic phenomenon which can be observed macroscopically like the Ostwald ripening in oil in water emulsions. This is a first step before studying others systems of interest for the petroleum industry such as oil/water emulsion or the adsorption of oil droplets on rock wall.

Nanoemulsões são emulsões especiais com glóbulos de tamanho na faixa de 20 a 500 nm. São sistemas que apresentam transparência ou fluidez, favorecendo o aspecto sensorial de espalhabilidade e umectação muito interessantes para produtos cosméticos destinados aos cuidados da pele e produtos para a saúde, atuando como sistemas de liberação de fármacos, além da característica nanométrica, que previne processos de instabilidade física. A queimadura da pele é o quadro resultante da ação direta ou indireta do calor sobre o organismo humano causando inflamação proporcionando intensa ação de radicais livres. A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo desenvolver nanoemulsões à base de óleo de gergelim aditivadas de óleo de framboesa para aplicação em queimaduras de pele. Os óleos de gergelim e framboesa apresentaram atividade antioxidante nos testes de DPPH e Xantina Oxidase. No desenvolvimento das dispersões o método de preparo por baixa energia, fundamentado na mudança de curvatura da molécula do tensoativo, foi induzido pela temperatura de inversão de fase. O resultado desta pesquisa foram duas nanoemulsões utilizando dois tensoativos derivados do óleo de rícino com diferentes etoxilações. A avaliação da estabilidade foi realizada pelo cálculo do principal mecanismo de instabilidade das nanoemulsões, chamado Ostwald ripening. O projeto também propõe uma nova metodologia para a avaliação in vitro- HET-CAM e, in vivo do eritema através da medida pelo Chroma Meter e transformação em escala dos resultados. A pesquisa demonstrou que as nanoemulsões não preveniram o processo de queimadura da pele dos camundongos hairless, mas sugere uma tendência mais rápida à redução do eritema. / Nanoemulsions are special systems with uniform and extremely small droplet size, in the range of 20500 nm. Due to their characteristic size, some nanoemulsions are optically transparent or translucent and have kinetic stability, low viscosity, that result in excellent espalhability and humectation making them of increasing use in many applications, for example, in cosmetics as personal care formulations, and in pharmaceutical field as drug delivery systems. The skin burn is the result of direct or indirect hot effect over human organism. This situation provokes an inflammatory process with intense action of reactive oxygen species. The aim of this research was the development of sesame indicum oil-based nanoemulsions with raspberry oil for application in skin burn. The sesame and raspberry oils presented antioxidant activity in DPPH test and Oxidase Xantine system. The dispersions were obtained by low energy method, that was based on curvature change of surfactant molecule induced for temperature. It was obtained two nanoemulsions using different surfactant castor oil derivative etoxilated. The stability assessement was realized with the calculation of main instability mechanism, the Oswald ripening rate. This Project has been carried out with an in vitro method to evaluate the toxicity (HET-CAM) and antioxidant activity (DPPH and Xantine Oxidase), and in vivo erytem evaluation with Chroma Meter. The results of in vivo test was transformed in a score, that reflected the level of erythema. This work demonstred nanoemulsion hasn´t prevented the skin burn in hairless rats, but there was a tendency to decrease the erythema.

Fruit of Capsicum annuum L. (capsicum or pepper) are one of the major sources of red food colourant and pungency for spice production. In the spice production industry, fruit are mechanically harvested at different ripeness stages and fruit colour needs to be synchronised before being processed. However, even though capsicum ripens normally on the plant it often fails to ripen fully and turn red once harvested at the green stage. Attempts to promote ripening of harvested fruits have had limited success and the reason for this has been unclear. This project, therefore, investigated ripening behaviour on and off the plant of capsicum fruit grown in Australia and examined effects of pre- and postharvest applications on ripening of green harvested fruit. To examine ripening behaviour on and off the plant, capsicum fruit from three different cultivars (a mild paprika type cv. “Papri Queen”, a cayenne chilli cv. “Caysan”, and a sweet type bell pepper cv. “Aries”) were either allowed to ripen naturally on the plant or harvested at three different maturity stages: light green, deep green and breaker. Harvested fruit were stored individually at room temperature and several ripening characteristics including internal ethylene (C2H4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration, extractable colour, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) synthase and oxidase activity, and total soluble solid content (TSSC) were studied during storage. There was very limited involvement of C2H4 during ripening of capsicum and the change in ACC synthase and ACC oxidase (two enzymes in C2H4 biosynthesis pathway) activity was not closely related to that of C2H4. However, it appeared that colour development in cv. “Papri Queen” was closely associated with what C2H4 production did occur while a climacteric-like peak of C2H4 could be observed in all fruit from cv. “Caysan”. For all three cultivars, the level of internal CO2 concentration, extractable colour and TSSC were greater in fruit ripened on the plant followed by fruit harvested at the breaker, deep green and light green stage, respectively. Fruit harvested at the light green stage failed to change colour properly and had very low levels of internal CO2 concentration and TSSC while fruit harvested from the breaker stage onwards ripened normally and developed sufficient colour for spice processing. This may suggest a role of external carbon-supply during ripening. To study the effect of the external-carbon supply during ripening, the stem of fruit were cinctured when fruit reached the light green stage and fruit were left to ripen on the plant. Cincturing delayed colour development of fruit by approximately five days but cinctured fruit were still able to turn red and develop extractable colour higher than the acceptable level of 140 ASTA units. Cincturing did not significantly alter other ripening behaviour such as CO2 concentration or TSSC. The lack of external carbon-supply is, therefore, unlikely to play a major role in the failure of green harvested fruit to ripen. To study the effect of application of plant growth regulators (both pre- and postharvest), an effective method of solution application utilising cincturing was firstly developed. Different plant growth regulator solutions including ethephon, naphthalene acetic acid, abscisic acid, jasmonic acid, sucrose, and different combinations of these were applied to fruit at the light green stage to study preharvest effects on ripening parameters during storage. Only treatment with high concentrations of ethephon increased the extractable colour higher than the acceptable level of 140 ASTA units and induced the complete degradation of chlorophyll. To study effects of postharvest application, 10 µL of various plant growth regulators was dropped into the hole created on the stem of harvested fruit for ten consecutive days. Treatment with ethephon significantly increased extractable colour and degraded chlorophyll content of fruit. Pre- and postharvest ethephon treatment strongly up-regulated Capsanthin-capsorubin synthase (Ccs) gene expression in a manner similar to the up-regulation of Ccs observed in fruit ripened on the plant. This explains the effect of C2H4 on colour development and also indicates the possible reason for the failure of green harvested fruit to ripen. However, the Ccs gene expression and chlorophyll degradation induced by ethephon was not visible until 14 days after harvest which indicated it may not be a direct effect and other signal transduction factors may be involved. When fruit are ripened on the plant, colour development may, therefore, be induced by ripening-related factors (other than C2H4) which is possibly inhibited or inactivated when fruit are harvested at the green stage. C2H4 application to fruit at this stage may help to reactivate or recover these factors which in turn induce colour development. Thus, although capsicum fruit show typical non-climacteric behaviour, C2H4 appears to be involved in some aspects of the ripening process. / http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1294648 / Thesis(Ph.D.)-- School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, 2007

Nanoemulsões são emulsões especiais com glóbulos de tamanho na faixa de 20 a 500 nm. São sistemas que apresentam transparência ou fluidez, favorecendo o aspecto sensorial de espalhabilidade e umectação muito interessantes para produtos cosméticos destinados aos cuidados da pele e produtos para a saúde, atuando como sistemas de liberação de fármacos, além da característica nanométrica, que previne processos de instabilidade física. A queimadura da pele é o quadro resultante da ação direta ou indireta do calor sobre o organismo humano causando inflamação proporcionando intensa ação de radicais livres. A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo desenvolver nanoemulsões à base de óleo de gergelim aditivadas de óleo de framboesa para aplicação em queimaduras de pele. Os óleos de gergelim e framboesa apresentaram atividade antioxidante nos testes de DPPH e Xantina Oxidase. No desenvolvimento das dispersões o método de preparo por baixa energia, fundamentado na mudança de curvatura da molécula do tensoativo, foi induzido pela temperatura de inversão de fase. O resultado desta pesquisa foram duas nanoemulsões utilizando dois tensoativos derivados do óleo de rícino com diferentes etoxilações. A avaliação da estabilidade foi realizada pelo cálculo do principal mecanismo de instabilidade das nanoemulsões, chamado Ostwald ripening. O projeto também propõe uma nova metodologia para a avaliação in vitro- HET-CAM e, in vivo do eritema através da medida pelo Chroma Meter e transformação em escala dos resultados. A pesquisa demonstrou que as nanoemulsões não preveniram o processo de queimadura da pele dos camundongos hairless, mas sugere uma tendência mais rápida à redução do eritema. / Nanoemulsions are special systems with uniform and extremely small droplet size, in the range of 20500 nm. Due to their characteristic size, some nanoemulsions are optically transparent or translucent and have kinetic stability, low viscosity, that result in excellent espalhability and humectation making them of increasing use in many applications, for example, in cosmetics as personal care formulations, and in pharmaceutical field as drug delivery systems. The skin burn is the result of direct or indirect hot effect over human organism. This situation provokes an inflammatory process with intense action of reactive oxygen species. The aim of this research was the development of sesame indicum oil-based nanoemulsions with raspberry oil for application in skin burn. The sesame and raspberry oils presented antioxidant activity in DPPH test and Oxidase Xantine system. The dispersions were obtained by low energy method, that was based on curvature change of surfactant molecule induced for temperature. It was obtained two nanoemulsions using different surfactant castor oil derivative etoxilated. The stability assessement was realized with the calculation of main instability mechanism, the Oswald ripening rate. This Project has been carried out with an in vitro method to evaluate the toxicity (HET-CAM) and antioxidant activity (DPPH and Xantine Oxidase), and in vivo erytem evaluation with Chroma Meter. The results of in vivo test was transformed in a score, that reflected the level of erythema. This work demonstred nanoemulsion hasn´t prevented the skin burn in hairless rats, but there was a tendency to decrease the erythema.

Thesis (MSc .(Plant Production)) -- University of Limpopo, 2016 / Delayed fruit harvest (DFH) or on-tree-fruit storage is a strategy being considered to extend the harvest season of late maturing ‘Reed’ avocado. However, avocado fruit growth beyond physiological maturity is accompanied by alterations in chemical and physical properties. Thus, the study aimed to investigate the effects of delayed harvest on tree productivity, mineral nutrition and post-harvest quality of late maturing ‘Reed’ avocado and further to evaluate the fruit quality response to varying ripening temperature regimes. As treatments, fruit were harvested early, mid and late in the season, with one month apart from each harvest during 2013 and 2014 seasons. Yield and fruit size were recorded at harvest. During each harvest time, two sets of fruit samples were collected to determine the fruit nutritional content while the second set was cold stored at 5.5°C for 28 days. After storage, fruit were ripened at 16, 21 or 25°C and evaluated for post-harvest disorders, pathological diseases and fruit physico-chemical properties. Yield dropped from 42 to 12 kg/tree from early to late harvest during 2013, while treatments showed no effect during 2014. Furthermore, treatments had no effect on fruit size during both seasons. Phosphorus content decreased by 40 and 23% from early to late harvest time during 2013 and 2014 seasons, respectively. Similar decreasing patterns were observed for K, Ca and Mg content. Zinc content remained constant during 2013; however, mid-season fruit maintained higher zinc levels during 2014 season when compared to early and late harvest time. Protein content was constant for early and mid-season fruit but significantly decreased during the late harvest in both seasons. Moisture content decreased from 74.0 to 65.0% from early to late harvest during both seasons. Starch, oil and ash content were high during late harvest time in both seasons; while crude fibre was high during the mid-harvest time when compared with early and late harvest time. Internal chilling injury increased with maturity and ripening temperature. In both seasons, higher temperatures induced higher anthracnose incidences during early and mid-harvest compared with late harvest time. Similarly, vascular browning was high on fruit ripened at 16°C during early and mid-harvest time but decreased on late harvest fruit during 2013. However, low ripening temperatures induced high incidences of vascular browning during 2014 season. Stem-end rot was high on fruit ripened at 16°C than 21 and 25°C during 2014 season. xvi Physico-chemical quality parameters showed similar behaviour in both seasons. Fruit lightness increased with ripening time regardless of ripening temperature during the early harvest, but remained constant during mid and late harvest. Hue angle (h0) and Chroma (C*) values were slightly reduced during ripening. Fruit ripened at 25°C had the highest respiration rate and reached a climacteric peak earlier (day 2) than fruit ripened at 21 and 16°C (day 4). Fruit firmness and weight loss were high and rapid at 25°C followed by 21 and 16°C regardless of the harvest time. Delayed harvest had no effect on yield and fruit size. Generally, nutritional content of avocado fruit increased with fruit maturity. Furthermore, fruit maturity played a major role in the response of fruit to ripening temperature. Higher temperature enhanced fruit ripening, but was conducive for development of post-harvest diseases. Keywords: Harvesting time, nutrition, yield, fruit size, ripening temperature, post-harvest quality