effect of gibberellic acid on fresh, processed pear and consuming impact hazards

ABSTRACT

Gibberellic acid [GA3] is the most widely used growth regulator for increasing the yield of Le-Conte pears. Twenty ppm of GA3 were sprayed three times on pear trees during the growing period. The effects of GA3 on the physical and chemical properties of fresh Le-Conte pears were studied. Also, its effects on some chemical characteristics of syrup and quarters of canned pears were determined. The residuals of GA3 in treated fresh and processed Le-Conte pears were 18.41 and 8.75 ppm, respectively, by using gas liquid chromatography. However, no residuals were detected in control fresh and canned pears. The effects of gibberellic acid embryotoxicity and morphological malformation were determined by using fertile eggs which were injected with 0, 5, 20, 60 and 200 ppm concentration of GA3. During the incubation period, the lowest concentration of GA3 [5 ppm] caused relatively the highest reduction in egg weight and vice versa. At the end of incubation period, the numbers of hatching eggs of total ten for each concentration were 10, 7, 5, 3, 2 for the treatments 0, 5, 20, 60 and 200 ppm of GA3, respectively. These results revealed that the high concentrations of GA3 were more toxic on embryos compared with control