_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Corresponding author: Email: viveksachan99@rediffmail.com, viveksachan99@gmail.com; European Journal of Nutrition & Food Safety 14(11): 146-159, 2022; Article no.EJNFS.93936 ISSN: 2347-5641 A Critical Review on Physiological Changes during Growth Maturation and Ripening of Citrus Fruits Neelam Sachan a and Vivek Kumar a* a Department of Food Technology, Harcourt Butler Technical University, Kanpur-208002, Uttar Pradesh, India. Authors’ contributions This work was carried out in collaboration between both authors. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript. Article Information DOI: 10.9734/EJNFS/2022/v14i111272 Open Peer Review History: This journal follows the Advanced Open Peer Review policy. Identity of the Reviewers, Editor(s) and additional Reviewers, peer review comments, different versions of the manuscript, comments of the editors, etc are available here: https://www.sdiarticle5.com/review-history/93936 Received: 26 September 2022 Accepted: 27 November 2022 Published: 01 December 2022 ABSTRACT Citrus is one of the major fruit crops in the world and widely recognized by their nutritional, organoleptic and health-related benefits of fresh fruit. The genetic diversity among the genus and independent changes in peel and pulp, make the definition of standard maturity indexes of fruit quality. Commercial maturity indexes in the citrus industry are usually based on peel coloration, soluble solids, pH but their relevance may differ among varieties and the specific requirements of the markets. Citrus fruits are excellent source of many phytochemical, including ascorbic acid, antioxidant, tannin, etc., which greatly contribute to the health-related benefits of citrus fruits. Criteria and definition of the main maturity indexes for citrus fruit worldwide are described, as well as changes during fruit maturation in key components affecting organoleptic and nutritional properties. Citrus fruits were analyzed at different maturity stages. This review is aimed to characterize the physiological maturity of the fruit across the different developmental stage which has not been well reported in literature till now. Keywords: Citrus fruits; physiological; growth; maturation; ripening. 1. INTRODUCTION Fruit have been a matter of extensive research in last few decades because of their importance to agriculture and the human diet. However, research on fleshy fruit has focused primarily on climacteric fruits such as tomato while other fruit models are not so well known. Citrus fruits Review Article