This study showed that the fruit maturity and the extraction method had significant effects on the yield of pectin, its composition, molecular characteristics and its rheological behaviour. The selection of suitable pectin extraction methods should not be based on yield alone but should also consider the functional properties. For instance, the enzymatic extraction method although giving the highest pectin yields for both EHF and MHF, yielded a pectin that exhibited low viscosity and poor gel strength. This study also demonstrated that water-extracted MHF and EHF pectins exhibited the highest viscosities, suggesting that pectin obtained from water extraction method was least detrimental to the pectin molecule in the native state. Therefore, the selection of pectin from different maturities and different extraction methods should depend on the desired functionality required in different food applications.