The T1 variations during ripening revealed in this study were in part different from the results obtained on tomatoes by Ishida et al. (1989). In the latter study tomatoes were harvested at green and mature stages and the T1 of the outer pericarp was found to be higher for red fruit than for green fruit, while the T1 of the centre decreased with ripening as in our experiments. This lack of agreement is probably due to differences in the ripening process when it occurs before or after fruit harvesting. Clark and MacFall (2003) showed that the T1 of the persimmon increased during development
and started to decrease 2.5 weeks after harvesting, whereas the T2 decreased over the entire period. Using NMR Raffo et al. (2005) observed an increase in T2 of both the cytoplasmic and vacuolar water in the banana during its postharvest ripening and attributed this to the decrease in starch concentration. In kiwifruit T1 declined and T2 increased during postharvest ripening. In view of these results, it seems that there is not a single trend in T2 or T1 changes during fruit ripening, and that they strongly depend on the fruit variety and ripening conditions.