DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS AND CORRELATION BETWEEN MORPHOLOGICAL AND PHYSICOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SOME VARIETIES OF MOROCCAN PRICKLY PEAR

In this study, an analysis was carried on four Moroccan varieties of prickly pear grown at three different regions on three different maturity stages. This study aims at making firstly evaluation of the changes which take place in the morphological and physicochemical characteristics of prickly pear fruits on the three different stages of maturity and secondly detection of the correlation between the different descriptors. Statistical analysis reveals that regardless of the degree of maturity, the parameters of skin thickness and floral receptacle depth have changed significantly from one variety to another. The other physical and physico-chemical parameters (floral receptacle diameter, fruit weight, percentage of pulp, skin, Brix, acidity, sugar, vitamin C and fat content) also varied significantly from one vaiety to another and from one maturity stage to another. The analysis also shows that prickly pears ripen the content elements “fruit weight, pulp weight, Brix, sugar and vitamin C content”, increase skin thickeness and decrease acidity content. In conclusion, it seems that among the 14 physical and physicochemical characteristics of the prickly pears studied, only the “fruit weight" parameter is the most important. In addition, the heavier the fruit, the more pulpy, contains more citric acid, vitamin C and fat.