Physical, physiological, physicochemical and nutritional characterization of pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima) in postharvest stage cultivated in Antioquia-Colombia

Pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima), also called squash is a mass consumption fruit used in agroindustrial transformations to obtain new food products. This study aimed to evaluate the physical, physiological and physicochemical properties during a storage period of 42 days and the nutritional compounds of the freshly harvested fruit fractions. According to the CIEL*a*b* space, both the pulp and peel did not present significant changes in L* and a* values during the evaluated storage time; however, in the peel, a change in the b* values was evidenced. In addition, there was a decrease in the firmness of 10.8% in the fruit with peel and in the pulp, it was of 19.8% was observed, with a whole fruit weight loss of 2.33% and an average respiration rate of 6.9 mg CO2 kg-1h-1. According to physicochemical characteristics evaluated in the pulp, the values of pH, percentage of humidity, acidity, water activity and total soluble solids had no statistically significant changes occurred during the storage time. At the nutritional level, pumpkin is a good source of minerals, with a high concentration of potassium in all its fractions, and also has in total carotenoids (4.11±1.6 mg of β-carotene g-1 oven dry (o.d) in pulp and 6.24±2.7 mg of β-carotene g-1 (o.d) in peel). It was possible to conclude that the pumpkin has a low respiration rate, maintaining its physicochemical characteristics suitable for consumption throughout the evaluation period, presenting suitable conditions.