Mango fruit are climacteric and ethylene is therefore involved in co-ordination
of ripening; the activity of ethylene is more pronounced in stressed
fruit affected by disease (Lizada, 1993). Sodium bicarbonate treatments
particularly at 51.5 C did not vary from the control in quality
parameters such as fruit color and pH which might suggest that the
pH increase reported to occur in heated sodium bicarbonate solutions
(Smilanick et al., 1999) might have undesirable effect on the fruit.
But it is noteworthy that the quality of the fruit after such
treatments was still found to be acceptable.