Agrotechnology

Effect of 1-MCP on quality and shelf life of winter Guava

2^nd International Conference on Agricultural & Horticultural Sciences

Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel, Hyderabad, India February 03-05, 2014

Ramesh Kumar, A K Thakur and P C Sharma

Posters: Agrotechnol

Abstract:

India is the largest producer of mango but the exported volume is still small due to short shelf life of the fruit that makes it difficult for ship transport. Delaying maturation and maintaining post harvest quality is of paramount importance for minimizing post harvest losses of this fruit. Therefore present investigation was aimed to investigate the effects of 1-MCP on ripening response and keeping quality of guava cv. Allahabad Safeda. The treatments were characterized by exposing the fruits to 250, 500 and 1000 nL L -1 of 1-MCP in sealed container for 4, 8 and 16 hours of duration followed by subsequent storage of treated and untreated fruit at 20C. Changes in various physico-chemical properties of fruit such as respiration rate, weight loss, fruit firmness, flesh colour, total soluble solid, acidity vitamin C and percentage of diseased fruits were assessed for a period of 20 days. It was found that application of 1-MCP delayed the colour development but did not exhibit any significant change in the physiological loss in weight of fruits. Respiration peak of treated fruit was delayed by 3 days with 1-MCP treatment. Its application at all concentration also reduced the fruit softening and loss of fruit acidity during their storage. However, the effectiveness of 1-MCP varied with exposer time of the fruit. Exposing the fruit to 4 hours was found to be ineffective when the fruits were treated with 250 nL L -1 of 1-MCP. Whereas this compound had the greatest effect when it was applied at the rate of 500 nL L -1 for 8 or 16 hrs or 1000 nL L -1 for 4 hrs. of time. Increasing the duration of exposer had the increasing impact on fruit quality but exposer time beyond 8 hour appeared to reach saturation level when the fruits were treated with the highest concentration of 1-MCP. The fruits treated with 1-MCP at 1000 nL L -1 for 4 hour can be stored for 12 days while untreated fruit can only be stored for 7 days. Thus the treatment with 1-MCP could be a viable alternative for long distance transportation of guava through shipment.