Respiration and Ethylene Production in Fruits of Species and Cultivars of Psidium and Species of Eugenia1

Abstract

Abstract Fruits of 4 species and cultivars of guava (Psidium guaiava L. cv. Beaumont, P. cattleianum Sabine, P. cattleianum f. lucidum Degener, and P. guajava L. cv. Allahabed Safeda) were found to be climacteric in their respiratory behavior with C2H4 triggering the respiratory rise. Fruits of 4 species of Eugenia (Eugenia malaccensis L., E. cumini (L.) Druce, E. uniflora L., and E. jambos L.) exhibited typical respiratory behavior of nonclimacteric fruits including the response to exogenous C2H4 treatments. The possibility of using respiratory data as a physiological tool for taxonomic differentiation of plants is discussed.