Assessment of the colour of Parinari curatellifolia fruit using an image processing computer software package

Parinari curatelllifolia fruits whose colours were to be measured were coll ected from locations close to Harare. The fruits representing a broad range of co lours were spread on a flat surface next to the whi te side of a Kodak grey card. Pictures of the fruit we re taken using a Nikon D70 digital camera. The pict ures were loaded onto a computer and analysed using Photoshop CS6 Extended from Adobe. The colour of fruits from different sites ranged from green to ye llowish to brown with shades of grey. The RGB values of the yellow fruit were higher than corresponding values for brown and green fruit. In all the groups of fruits that were green, brown and yellow, the red c omponent of the RBG colour space had the highest intensity followed by green and then blue. The mean s of RGB values were significantly different ( p<0.05) for more than 80% of fruit from the sites. Quantita tive measurement of colour of the fruit was successfully achieved by using the camera and computer with Adobe Photoshop software package.