The general trend observed
was that as fruits approached full ripening (day 14)
there was reduction in fruit firmness. Ripening in
many fruits is characterized by softening of the flesh.
Softening is thought to be brought about amongst
other factors by the concerted action of different cell
wall hydrolases whose activity changes during
ripening and alters the properties of many cell wall
constituents, e.g. Pectin (Knee and Bartley, 1981).
According to Pantastico et al. (1984), comprehensive
studies on ‘Carabao’ mango showed that fruit
firmness decreased abruptly early in the ripening
period but continued to decrease with further
ripening.