CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Among horticultural crops, fruits are of great importance for an adequate and balance human diet. In certain part of the world, fruits are the major dietary staple. Apart from being a rich source of vitamins, and minerals, the production of fruits also contributes significantly to regional and national economics through national and international trade. The term fruit has many different meaning depending on the context.
A fruit is a ripened ovary together with seeds of a flowering plant. Fruits are the means through which flowering plants disseminate seeds (Lewis, 2002).
In cuisine when food items are called “fruits” the term is most often used for those plants fruits that are edible, sweet, and fresh examples are: apples, and oranges.
Fruits are cultivated in areas where the environmental factors are suitable for their growth. Emene in Enugu state is considered one of the areas that have good cultivating land for great yield of fruits and this is done usually during rainy season or use of irrigation during dry season. Irrigation water is achieved by different sources like lake, stream, river, ponds etc. which may be polluted with animal and human feaces. Due to high number of eggs, cyst and larvae of human intestinal parasites present in the waste
water, the use of excreta polluted water is a health risk to both the farmers and the consumers that eat the produce raw and fresh, like apples, guava, pear and mango (Scolf, 1992).
Pollination is a vital part of fruit culture, and in few species, they may develop in the absence of pollination/fertilization, a process known as “parthernocarpy” such fruits are seedless (Mauseth &James 2003). Many foods are botanically fruits, but are treated as vegetables in cooking and food preparations. Examples are: Tomatoes, eggplant, pumpkin and pears etc. (Mcgee and Harold 2004). Ethylene causes ripening in fruits.
There are three types of fruits
1. Simple fruit
2. Aggregate fruit and
3. Multiple fruit