Efecto del etefón (ethrel) y el tiempo de almacenamiento sobre la maduración del plátano (Musa ABB cv. Harton) bajo refrigeración

abstract the postharvest maturation of plantain after treated with five dose of ethephon (from 2000 to 6000 mg·l-1 ethrel) and stored for periods ranging from 24 to 240 h was studied. green plantain fruits coming from south of cojedes state, venezuela, harvested at physiologic maturation were used. the trial was conducted under an orthogonal central composite design with two factors and analyzed under response surface methods. the combination of factors established a total of nine treatments and six repetitions of the central point. the fruits were stored at 18 ± 3 oc and 87 % h.r. the evaluated variables were weight loss (wl), resistance to the cut (rc) and penetration (rp), total soluble solids (tss) and titratable acidity (ta). the ethephon, at the tested concentrations, did not produce any effect (p>0.05) on those variables. the storage time caused a decrease (p≤0.01) on rc and rp, along with an increment on wl and tss. the ta showed a cuadratic trend reaching a maximum value before starting to descent. the low levels of total soluble solids and the high values of resistances to cut and penetration, obtained at the longest storage time, showed that storing the plantains for 240 h at 18 oc was not a period long enough to induce the appropriate ripening of the fruits