SYNERGISTIC EFFECT OF SALTS AND CELLULOSE BASED COATING ON SHELF LIFE OF KINNOW (CITRUS RETICULATA BLANCO) - M. A. Randhawa; M. Arfan; I. Pasha; M. Nadeem; N. Ahmad (Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, 2018)
Kinnow (Citrus reticulata Blanco) is achieving core consideration globally owing to its nutrition and high juice content. In Pakistan, kinnow export is limited due to inadequate postharvest handling and lack of appropriate storage practices. Considering these issues, the present study was designed to evaluate the effect of hydroxy-propyl-methylcellulose (HPMC) coating in combination with CaCl2 and MgSO4 on shelf life extension of kinnow. Fruits were treated with different levels of CaCl2 and MgSO4 followed by HPMC coating (3 and 5%) and stored at 10°C with 80% relative humidity for 6 weeks. Fruits were analyzed for various physico-chemical parameters on weekly basis. During this study lower fruit firmness (0.24Nm-2), loss in weight (0.64 %) and ethylene production (0.039 µL·kg-1·hr-1) was observed in fruits treated with 1% CaCl2 + 1% MgSO4 + 5% HPMC (T6) during storage of 42 days. Minimum chilling injury indices 0.22% and 0.61% were recorded in treatments T4 and T6, respectively. T6 showed higher values of titerable acidity (0.29%) and ascorbic acid contents (39.82mg/100g). Minimum TSS (9.62°Brix) were found in fruits of T6. Overall, T6 showed significantly better results for various parameters as compared to all other treated and control fruits.
Keywords: journal article; Citrus coating; Post-harvest; Hydroxy-propyl-methylcellulose; Physicochemical; shelf life