Search Results (9)

Papaya ripeness identification is a key task in orchard management. To achieve efficient deployment of this task on edge computing devices, this paper proposes a lightweight detection model, ABD-YOLO-ting, based on YOLOv8. First, the width factor of YOLOv8n is adjusted to construct a lightweight backbone network, YOLO-Ting. Second, a low-computation ADown module is introduced to replace the standard downsampling structure, aiming to enhance feature extraction efficiency. Third, an enhanced BiFPN is integrated into the neck structure to achieve efficient multi-scale feature fusion. Finally, to strengthen the model’s capability in identifying small objects, the dynamic detection head DyHead is introduced to improve ripeness recognition accuracy. On a self-constructed Japanese quince orchard dataset, ABD-YOLO-ting achieves a mAP50 of 94.7% and a mAP50–95 of 77.4%, with only 1.47 M parameters and 5.4 G FLOPs, significantly outperforming mainstream models such as YOLOv5, YOLOv8, and YOLOv11. On edge devices, the model achieves a well-balanced trade-off between detection speed and accuracy, demonstrating strong potential for practical applications in intelligent harvesting and orchard management. Full article

Commercial papaya varieties grown in Australia vary greatly in taste and aroma. Previous profiling has identified undesirable ‘off tastes’ in existing varieties, discouraging a portion of the population from consuming papayas. Our focus on enhancing preferred flavours led to an exploration of the genetic mechanisms and biosynthesis pathways that underlie these desired taste profiles. To identify genes associated with consumer-preferred flavours, we conducted whole RNA sequencing and de novo genome assembly on papaya varieties RB1 (known for its sweet flavour and floral aroma) and 1B (less favoured due to its bitter taste and musty aroma) at both ripe and unripe stages. In total, 180,368 transcripts were generated, and 118 transcripts related to flavours were differentially expressed between the two varieties at the ripe stage. Five genes (cpBGH3B, cpPFP, cpSUS, cpGES and cpLIS) were validated through qPCR and significantly differentially expressed. These genes are suggested to play key roles in sucrose metabolism and aromatic compound production pathways, holding promise for future selective breeding strategies. Further exploration will involve assessing their potential across broader germplasm and various growth environments. Full article

Papaya fruit (Carica papaya) has different degrees of ripening within each fruit, affecting its commercial market value. The fruit characteristics of “Tainung No. 2” Red papaya were investigated at the stem-end, middle, and calyx-end across 3 ripening stages and categorized based on fruit skin coloration: unripe at 16 weeks after anthesis (WAA), half-ripe at 18 WAA, and full-ripe at 20 WAA. The fruits maintained an elliptical shape during ripening with a ratio of 2.36 of the length to the width. The peel and pulp color changed from green to white to yellow during ripening, regardless of the three parts. In the pulp, soluble solid contents increased, and firmness decreased during ripening but did not differ among the three parts. Individual nutrient contents, including metabolites and minerals, changed dynamically between the ripening stages and fruit parts. Total carbohydrates and proteins, N, and K, were accumulated more at the stem-end during ripening; meanwhile, fructose, glucose, Mg, and Mn were accumulated more at the calyx-end. In the principal component analysis, ripening stages and fruit parts were distinctly determined by the first and second principal components, respectively. Understanding the nutrient and metabolite dynamics during ripening and their distribution within the fruit can help optimize cultivation practices, enhance fruit quality, and ultimately benefit both growers and consumers. Full article

Papaya seeds are a promising source of phenolic compounds, but these are unstable, and the papaya extract has a bitter taste. This study aimed to encapsulate papaya seed extracts at different maturation levels, and to characterize the obtained microparticles for their physicochemical properties, chemical stability and release of bioactives. Extracts of papaya (unripe and ripe) seeds were spray-dried using concentrations of 0, 15 and 30% of maltodextrin and inlet air temperatures of 130 and 150 °C. The powders were analyzed for yield, moisture, Aw, hygroscopicity, dispersibility, color parameters, morphology, mean diameter, total phenolics, antioxidant activity, stability during storage and release of phenolics in simulated gastrointestinal fluids. Powders produced with maltodextrin showed better results regarding particle diameter, hygroscopicity, dispersibility, and phenolic stability during storage. All powders showed antioxidant action and significant values of total phenolic compounds. Samples without maltodextrin underwent caking. Drying temperatures had little influence on the characteristics of the powders. Encapsulated phenolic compounds were released in large amounts in the intestinal phase (86.6–100%). Powders produced with unripe seeds, 15% of maltodextrin and an inlet air temperature of 130 °C showed the best results. Thus, encapsulation was efficient, and encapsulated papaya seed extract has potential for food application as a natural additive. Full article

Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of papaya (Carica papaya) fruits were evaluated to provide comprehensive information associated with the bioactive compounds. ‘Tainung No. 2’ papaya fruits, cultivated in a greenhouse, Korea, were harvested at unripe and ripe stages and then divided into seed and peel-pulp. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents were determined using spectrophotometry, and individual phenolic compounds were relatively quantified by HPLC-DAD and fifteen standards. Antioxidant activities were measured using four assays: DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and ABTS (2,2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)) scavenging activities, inhibition of lipid peroxidation, and FRAP (ferric reducing antioxidant power). Anti-inflammatory activities were measured by the regulation of NF-κB signaling pathways with the measurements of ROS and NO productions as the degree of oxidative stress. Total phenol contents increased in seed and peel–pulp extracts during ripening; flavonoid contents increased only in seed extracts. Total phenolic contents were associated with ABTS radical scavenging activity and FRAP. Of fifteen phenolic compounds, chlorogenic acid, cynarin, eupatorine, neochlorogenic acid, and vicenin II were identified among papaya extracts. ROS and NO productions were inhibited in papaya extracts. Especially, NO productions were inhibited higher in ripe seed extracts than in other extracts, which would be associated with the suppression of NF-κB activation and iNOS expression. These results suggest that papaya fruit extracts, including seeds, peels, and pulps, could be potential raw materials for functional foods. Full article

Papaya fruits (Carica papaya L.) are valuable both as food, including concentrates and mixed beverages and in traditional medicine. The goal of the study was to evaluate the antioxidant activity of various parts of unripe and ripe papaya fruit from the DPPH· kinetics point of view. Peel, pulp, seed, and seed-pulp of unripe and ripe papaya fruits (¼ and >¾ level of ripening) were extracted with ethanol and monitored at 517 nm in the presence of DPPH·. The radical scavenging capacity (RSC) at various time ranges and DPPH· reaction rates for specific time intervals were determined. The highest RSC values were obtained for papaya pulp extracts, consistently higher for the ripe samples in comparison with the unripe ones (86.4% and 41.3%). The DPPH· rates significantly differ for the unripe and ripe papaya extracts, especially for the first time range. They are more than double for the ripe papaya. These values were 2.70, 4.00, 3.25, 2.75 μM/s for the peel, pulp, seed, seed-pulp extracts from the ripe papaya and only 1.00, 1.65, 1.40, 1.80 μM/s for the unripe samples. DPPH· kinetic approach can be useful for a fast and simple evaluation of the overall antioxidant properties of fruit extracts. Full article

Fruit maturity is a critical factor in the supply chain, consumer preference, and agriculture industry. Most classification methods on fruit maturity identify only two classes: ripe and unripe, but this paper estimates six maturity stages of papaya fruit. Deep learning architectures have gained respect and brought breakthroughs in unimodal processing. This paper suggests a novel non-destructive and multimodal classification using deep convolutional neural networks that estimate fruit maturity by feature concatenation of data acquired from two imaging modes: visible-light and hyperspectral imaging systems. Morphological changes in the sample fruits can be easily measured with RGB images, while spectral signatures that provide high sensitivity and high correlation with the internal properties of fruits can be extracted from hyperspectral images with wavelength range in between 400 nm and 900 nm—factors that must be considered when building a model. This study further modified the architectures: AlexNet, VGG16, VGG19, ResNet50, ResNeXt50, MobileNet, and MobileNetV2 to utilize multimodal data cubes composed of RGB and hyperspectral data for sensitivity analyses. These multimodal variants can achieve up to 0.90 F1 scores and 1.45% top-2 error rate for the classification of six stages. Overall, taking advantage of multimodal input coupled with powerful deep convolutional neural network models can classify fruit maturity even at refined levels of six stages. This indicates that multimodal deep learning architectures and multimodal imaging have great potential for real-time in-field fruit maturity estimation that can help estimate optimal harvest time and other in-field industrial applications. Full article

The study aimed to investigate the mass transfer kinetics and nutritional quality during osmotic dehydration (OD) and air-drying of papaya. The papaya was osmotically pretreated by different concentrations of sugar solutions (40, 50 and 60 °Brix) and osmotic solution temperatures (35, 45 and 55 °C). The ratio of fruit to the solution was kept at 1:4 (w/v) and pretreated process duration varied from 0 to 240 min. The present study demonstrated that water loss and the solute gain rate increased with the increasing of osmotic solution temperature, concentration and time. Mass transfer kinetics of osmotically pretreated papaya cubes were investigated based on the Peleg’s and Penetration models. The Peleg model showed the best fitted for water loss and solute gain whereas the Penetration model best described the water loss during osmotic dehydration of papaya. Effective diffusivity of water and solute gain was estimated using the analytical solution of Fick’s law of diffusion. Average effective diffusivity of water loss and solute gain was obtained in the range from 2.25 × 10⁻⁹ to 4.31 × 10⁻⁹ m²/s and 3.01 × 10⁻⁹ to 5.61 × 10⁻⁹ m²/s, respectively. Osmotically pretreated samples were dried with a convective method at a temperature of 70 °C. The moisture content, water activity and shrinkage of the dried papaya were decreased when the samples pretreated with a higher concentration of the osmotic solution and greater process temperature. The results also indicated that the highest osmotic solution temperature of 55 °C with the lowest concentration of 40 °Brix resulted in a significant decrease in phenolic content, antioxidant activity, and vitamin C content while higher osmotic solution concentration of 60 °Brix and the lowest temperature of the process (35 °C) retained maximum bioactive compounds. Full article

In order to determine the in vivo activity against the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, two doses (50 and 75 mg/kg) of a chloroform extract of Carica papaya seeds were evaluated compared with a control group of allopurinol. The activity of a mixture of the three main compounds (oleic, palmitic and stearic acids in a proportion of 45.9% of oleic acid, 24.1% of palmitic and 8.52% of stearic acid previously identified in the crude extract of C. papaya was evaluated at doses of 100, 200 and 300 mg/kg. Both doses of the extracts were orally administered for 28 days. A significant reduction (p < 0.05) in the number of blood trypomastigotes was observed in animals treated with the evaluated doses of the C. papaya extract in comparison with the positive control group (allopurinol 8.5 mg/kg). Parasitemia in animals treated with the fatty acids mixture was also significantly reduced (p < 0.05), compared to negative control animals. These results demonstrate that the fatty acids identified in the seed extracts of C. papaya (from ripe fruit) are able to reduce the number of parasites from both parasite stages, blood trypomastigote and amastigote (intracellular stage). Full article