ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF INDIAN BANANA CULTIVARS DURING RIPENING

T. ARUL SELVAM¹*, S. GANAPATHY², C. INDU RANI³, A. SURENDRA KUMAR⁴, T. SATHYA NARAYANAN^5
1Department of Food and Agricultural Process Engineering, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 641003, Tamil Nadu
²Department of Food and Agricultural Process Engineering, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 641003, Tamil Nadu
³Department of Food and Agricultural Process Engineering, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 641003, Tamil Nadu
⁴Agricultural Machinery Research Centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 641003, Tamil Nadu
⁵Embedded System Technologies, Anna University Regional Centre, Coimbatore, 641 007, Tamil Nadu
* Corresponding Author : arulselvam.t@gmail.com

Received : 10-02-2018     Accepted : 14-02-2018     Published : 15-02-2018
Volume : 10     Issue : 3       Pages : 5140 - 5144
Int J Agr Sci 10.3 (2018):5140-5144
DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.9735/0975-3710.10.3.5140-5144

Keywords : electrical properties, banana, frequency, ripening stages, relative permittivity
Academic Editor : Oa Oyedele
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : The authors are grateful to University Grants Commission, New Delhi for financial support of this work. Also thank the Department of Food and Agricultural Processing Engineering, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore for necessary lab facilities provided by this research
Author Contribution : All authors are equally contributed

The study was undertaken to determine electrical properties of three Indian banana cultivars during ripening. Capacitance, relative permittivity, impedance and admittance were measured at different frequency ranges from 10 kHz to 1 MHz for each stage of ripening. The observed results showed that capacitance, relative permittivity and admittance values increase with the time duration of ripening for all three varieties. However, the impedance value was found to be decreasing linearly for all varieties during ripening. Robusta cultivar had maximum values of all the properties followed by Poovan and Karpuravalli. In the frequency ranges of 10 kHz to 1 MHz, the electrical properties of Indian banana are correlated linearly to ripening stages. Results of this study are highly use-full for development of a non destructive banana quality measuring device.

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