Flavia Della Lucia^1,, Heloísa Helena de Siqueira Elias², Edson Pablo da Silva³, Andrea Luiza Ramos Pereira Xisto⁴, André Feres Lopes Cardoso², Juliana Pinto de Lima⁵, Eric Batista Ferreira⁶, Eduardo Valério de Barros Vilas Boas²

Marolo (Annona crassiflora Mart.) is one of Brazilian Savannah fruits of economic interest, because of its wide use, nutritional and functional components to be better exploited. The quality parameters and antioxidant activity of marolo fruit stored at different temperatures (0°C, 6°C, 12°C and 20 ± 1°C) were subjected to physical and chemical analyses (0, 7, 14, 21 and 28 days) at 2 exposition factors for the observation of a possible occurrence of chilling injury. The loss of fruit mass is directly proportional to its storage time. The respiratory activity increases at higher temperatures, and decreases along the storage time. Marolo can be classified as a fruit with high ethylene production. There was a significant increase in soluble solids (SS), followed by a sharp decline from the 7^th day on. SS increased at higher at temperatures as well as in ripened fruit (compared to those analysed immediately after removal from cold). The content of sugar, pectin and the total antioxidant activity (AA) do not vary significantly due to storage time. Higher storage temperatures determine higher concentrations of sugars. The Pectin, acid ascorbic, total phenolics and AA observed suggest the nutritional and functional potential of this fruit. Recommended binomial time-temperature storage was 12°C for 21 days. There is no explicit indication of chilling in fruits stored under the conditions studied.

chilling, cold storage, functional compounds, savannah fruits, Annonaceae