Qualidade física da Castanha-do-Brasil nativa produzida em diferentes municípios de Mato Grosso

Abstract

Brazil nuts are the main non-timber extractive products of the Amazon rainforest. It has great economic and social importance, contributes to the development of agroforestry systems and stands out for its nutritional quality. Due to its relevance, Brazil nut production chain still need quantitative and qualitative information. There is a lack of information regarding the post harvest processes of Brazil nuts, especially regarding technologies for storage processing, in stages prior to industrialization. Aiming that, for the incorporation of new processes in the postharvest area, it is necessary to determine the physical properties, the objective of this work was to characterize the physical properties of the Brazil nut hedgehog, seed and almond produced in the North from the state of Mato Grosso. Native chestnut samples were obtained in January.Hedgehog, seed and almond size and shape characteristics were determined by circularity, sphericity, geometric diameter and volume, and these were obtained from the three characteristic dimensions with the aid of a digital caliper (0.01 mm). From seeds and almonds, the individual mass was also quantified, the mass of 100 (from the seeds and almonds) according to the methodology described in Brazil (2009); porosity by the volume complementation method; the real density by the Archimedes principle; and the bulk density obtained indirectly by the relationship between the actual specific mass and porosity. The moisture content of the hedgehog and the seed was determined by the direct method in a forced air oven. Data were subjected to analysis of variance by F test (P <0.05) and means compared by Tukey test at 5% probability. Regarding the yield variables, a significant difference was observed between the hedgehogs collected in different producing municipalities, especially the municipality of Alta Floresta, which had the highest seed mass values. The results also indicated that there is a significant difference in the physical properties of nuts among the municipalities. The nuts obtained in Alta Floresta have higher individual mass values when compared to other municipalities. Regarding the form, the average sphericity of the seeds was 66.70% (64.41 to 68.13%), and the almond 61.99% (58.05 to 64.38%). The average roundness obtained for seed and almond was 59.82 and 53.99%, respectively. In the same order, the variations ranged from 50.28 to 65.18% and from 47.47 to 54.80%. There was no statistical difference for the sphericity, real and bulk density of the almond, as well as for the real density of the seed.