EFFECT OF POST-HARVEST TREATMENTS ON QUALITY AND SHELF LIFE OF PINEAPPLE FRUITS AT AMBIENT STORAGE CONDITION

Abstract

The present study conducted at the laboratories of the Department of Horticulture, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207 during the period from 8 Janurary 2020 to 26 January 2020. The experiment was carried out to investigate the role of different preservatives in extending the shelf life of pineapple fruits and improve the shelf life and post-harvest quality of pineapple fruits at ambient storage condition. A total of nine postharvest treatments viz., T 1 = Fruit dipping in Napthalene Acetic Acid (NAA) at 100 mg L -1 and kept in open condition; T 2 = Fruit dipping in Gibberellic Acid (GA 3 ) at 100 mg L -1 and kept in open condition; T 3 = Fruit dipping in Salicylic Acid (SA) at 5 m M L -1 and kept in open condition; T 4 = Fruit dipping in Maleic Hydrazide (MH) at 500 mg L -1 and kept in open condition; T 5 = Covering with perforated polythene; T 6 = Covering with newspaper bag; T 7 = Covering with dry straw; T 8 = Hot water treatment, and T 9 = Control were used on fruit to investigate physico-chemical qualities and shelf life of pineapple cv. Honey Queen. Experiment was laid out in Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications. Study revealed that among the different treatments, fruits treated with GA 3

showed delayed response of ripening and increase shelf life (18.50 days). At 15 days after storage (DAS), skin colour remained quarter yellow (average score: 3.4), crown condition good with slight tip yellowing (average score: 2.2), slightly infected and 10% fruit decay with high juice content (70.23%), whereas, fruits showed considerably higher amount of TSS (20.25°Brix), total sugar (13.91%) and ascorbic acid content (20.13 mg 100 g pulp -1 ) with less weight loss (10.57%) when fruits treated with GA 3 at 100 mg L -1 . However, among the other treatments, SA (5.0 mM) and MH (500 mg L -1 ) performed well in terms of fruit physico-chemical properties and shelf life.