---

“The girl of Narenj and toranj” is one of the most famous Persian tales about which there are many different narratives. It has been registered by universal code no. 408. It includes some mythical motifs. The motif of the girl’s death and her revival who lives inside fruits, is reminiscent of Plant God. The role of horse, girl’s long hair and her relationship with water, are some other evidences which prove this association. On the other hand, the prevalence of narratives in which the girl comes out of sour orange, citron and pomegranate shows that these fruits were related to myths and they had a kind of importance or special place for the public in the past. In fact, they were used as symbols in some customs like proposal and marriage ceremonies. Sour orange and citron were the symbols of happiness and fertility. Also, pomegranate was the symbol of fertility and blessing. Moreover, it was associated with love and its myths

---

The goal of this research is to compare the traditional and industrial methods in production of sour orange juice and to reach the optimum conditions for juice color maintenance. In the present study the juice was collected from three stages of sour orange juice production line namely prior to pasteurization process (UNP), following pasteurization and homogenization (PH) and after supplementing the juice with standard quantity of sodium metabisulfit (PHS). The juice from all three stages was poured into dark color air tight seal glass bottles. The samples were stored under ambient temperature (~ 20^oC and 35^oC), cold room temperature (~ 4^oC) and freezing (-18^oC). Various physicochemical characteristics including pH, total solid content (Bx), HMF and vitamin C contents and color parameters were assessed at one week intervals for 16 weeks. Results were analyzed with SPSS software in 95% confidence level. The analysis of the data indicates that the color quality decreased with time while HMF content shows an increasing trend. The vitamin C shows a decreasing trend with time and increasing temperature. The trend of color change in samples stored in refrigerated and freezing conditions were almost the same. Furthermore, sodium metabisulfit shows its color protecting effect only at higher storage temperatures (25 and 35^oC) and during final weeks of storage. In the present study the changes on pH and total solid content of the samples regardless of storage temperature and condition was negligible.

---

The Juice clarification is an important operation in the fruit processing industry. Sour Orange is a source of vitamin C that is cultivated in the north of Iran. Since turbidity of this fruit after juice extraction affects on quality, shelf-life and concentration of juice; clarification and removing of turbidity-causing factors is important. In this study, the effect of membrane parameters including pressure (1.2-2.2 bar) and temperature (25-35 ºC) on the quality characteristics of sour orange during membrane clarification was investigated. The response surface methodology (RSM) by Design-Expert Software was used to optimize the clarification conditions. Results of the experiments showed that the Browning index was raised by increasing of temperature, but vitamin C content, Total antioxidant activity value and clarity was decreased in this condition. The Browning index was decreased by increasing of pressure; however, no significant effect was observed on the other quality characteristics. Results of process optimization indicated that the best condition to maximize of vitamin C content, total antioxidant and clarity and to minimize of Browning index achieved at 25 ºC and 1.7 bar. In this condition the vitamin C content, Browning index, Total antioxidant activity and clarity was 24.9 (mg/100 cc juice), 0.106, 87.97% and 97.1%, respectively.

---

Sour orange is a citrus with high antioxidant content (mainly ascorbic acid and phenolic compound). Its juice is consumed as a food seasoning. Thermal pasteurization is a common way to improve safety of sour orange juice. By considering the high thermal sensitivity of ascorbic acid and phenolic compounds, the aim of this study is the investigation of the effect of thermal processing on ascorbic acid, total phenol and an antioxidant capacity of sour orange juice at 70, 75, 80, 85 and 90 °C in 76, 66, 48, 35 and 21 min, respectively. Ascorbic acid and total phenolic content were measured according iodine titration and Folin- Ciocalteu methods, respectively. Ascorbic acid and total phenol degradation during thermal processing were evaluated by Arrhenius and Eyring models. Enthalpy of ascorbic acid degradation changed slightly due to its high thermal resistance (29.15°C) and free energy (101.11-102.64 kJ/mole). With  5°C increase in temperature, the half-life of ascorbic acid and the total phenol content decreased about 1.31 to 1.80 and 1.39 to 2.05 times, respectively. Also there was a good correlation between total phenol content and DPPH of sour orange juice (R²> 0.97).

---

Sour orange juice has found application in various foods as alternative of lime juice, due to its desirable taste. Different thermal processes could be performed to improve safety and shelf life of this product. In this study, the sour orange juice was processed at four microwave power levels (170, 340, 510 & 680 W) in a various periods of time to reach the product temperature to 72^˚C. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of heating processes on the some physicochemical properties of sour orange juice during come up time. Based on the results, different power levels of microwave have no significant effects on viscosity. The thermal destruction of Ascorbic acid and Pectin methyl esterase were found to follow first order kinetics. Destruction rate of these two compounds were also increased by increasing microwave power. Because of the effect of microwave power on chemicals especially ascorbic acid, the colorimetric parameters of the product changed as a result of changing in microwave power. By considering the high regression (R²> 0.97) between two measuring methods (spectroscopy and image processing), the image processing method is suggested as browning index during thermal processing.

---

The mechanical properties of fruit are one of the most important determinants of standards for designing, transforming, processing, and packaging systems. One of the methods for changesdemonstraction in the internal structure of fruits during storage is to perform stress relaxation tests in different predetermined strains. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the orange compression behavior in quasi-static mechanical loadings by performing stress-relaxation tests of samples at predetermined levels of strain and modeling the Maxwell and Peleg method and comparing it with image processing method. In addition, in this study, cross-sectional area changes were measured during loading by image processing. The modulus of elasticity in the image processing method, the Maxwell model and the Peleg model on days 0 to 9 increased from 3.91 to 4.5, 3.6 to 4.53 and 2.7 to 3.45, respectively. which in spite of increasing trend there was no significant difference between them Since, no significant difference in the output of these two models (Maxwell and Peleg) was observed Peleg with the less number of elements (only two constants) was preferred compared to Maxwell method

---

Citrus is one of the most important fruits whose growth performance and production is significantly affected by environmental stresses. Abiotic stresses, such as salinity and alkaline pH, strikingly limit citrus growth and development. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of four NaCl concentrations (0, 30, 60, 90 mM) and two pH levels (6.5 and 8.2) on some of morphological, physiological, and biochemical parameters of two citrus rootstocks (Sour orange and Bakraei rootstocks). The experiment was conducted as factorial based on a completely randomized design with four replications, at the Faculty of Agriculture, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran. The results showed that the value of shoot dry weight, fresh and dry weight of roots, and transpiration were significantly decreased in both Bakraei and Sour orange rootstocks when receiving irrigation with 90 mM supplement of salinity at pH= 8.2. Proline and carbohydrates of citrus rootstocks were considerably increased by increasing the levels of salinity (90 mM NaCl) and alkaline stress (pH= 8.2) in each rootstock, at which condition the photosynthesis rate of Sour orange and Bakraei also declined by 34.77 and 50.80%, respectively. The activity of antioxidant enzymes such as peroxidase, catalase, and superoxide dismutase were increased by 57.42, 42.10, and 45.86% in Sour orange rootstock and 42.04, 26.78, and 37.92% in Bakraei rootstock, respectively. Overall, it can be concluded that the growth performance of Sour orange rootstock is more suitable than Bakraei to tolerate salt-alkali conditions.