santosh bose

Mango is one of the most important and widely cultivated climacteric fruit which ripens rapidly after harvesting. It exhibits very short shelf life mainly due to high respiration rate, susceptible to various storage pathogens and mechanical injuries at the time of postharvest management which lead to reduce the quality. However, the experiment was carried out to investigate the chitosan oligosaccharides (COS) coating effects on postharvest quality and shelf life of mango varieties.

Mango fruits of two selected varieties (Langra and Amropali) were collected at mature stage. Changes in different physico-chemical characteristics were studied at different days of storage under ordinary room condition through different COS concentration viz., control, COS 25 mg/L, COS 50 mg/L, COS 100 mg/L, COS 250 mg/L and COS 500 mg/L. The two factor-experiments were laid out in a completely randomized design with three replications.

Results demonstrated that COS had a positive effect on retaining higher amount of anthocyanin content, total sugar and total soluble solid content. Moreover, COS treated fruits exhibited significant delays of firmness, weight loss percentage, titratable acidity, pH and vitamin C content compared to untreated fruits. In addition, between two varieties of mango, Langra exhibited better performance compared to Amropali when treated with COS 100 mg/L.

Research Limitations: 

The study did not focus on ethylene biosynthesis and respiration rate determination.

Originality/Value:

 COS 100mg/L have great potentiality to maintain postharvest quality and increase shelf life of mango which could be applied commercially for preservation of mango in an ecofriendly manner.

Guava is believed to be the most important commercial fruit crop in Bangladesh. Guava fruit exhibit very short storage life mainly due to high respiration rate, susceptibility to various pathogens and mechanical damages which can rapidly reduce the quality. However, the experiment was conducted to study the edible coatings effects on postharvest quality and shelf life of guava. 

Commercially mature guava fruits (Swarupkathi and Thai) were treated with six edible coatings viz., (i) T1 : Control, (ii) T2 : Aloe vera gel (25%), (iii) T3: Carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC) (1%), (iv) T4: Chitosan(1%), (v) T5: Aloe vera gel (25%) + Chitosan (1%) and (vi) T6: Green tea leaf extract. The two-factor experiment was designed with a Completely Randomized Design and three replications.

The results showed that, Thai Piara with Chitosan 1% treatment recorded the minimum weight loss (6.28%), the highest vitamin C content (191.44 mg/100gFW), the lowest pH (5.30), the maximum total soluble solids content (6.77 oBrix) and the highest titratable acidity (2.04%) at 10 days after storage compare to untreated Swarupkathi piara. Thai Piara treated with Aloe vera gel 25 % + Chitosan 1% exhibited the highest shelf life (13.00 days) followed by (12.67) in Chitosan (1%) treatment.

Research Limitations: 

The study did not focus on ethylene and respiration rate determination.

Originality/Value:

 The study demonstrated that Thai Piara, treated with Chitosan 1% solution showed better performance followed by Aloe vera gel 25% + Chitosan 1% solution for maintaining postharvest quality and shelf life of guava.