Effect of Post-harvest Treatments on Quality and Shelf Life of Pineapple (Ananas comosus [L.] Merr. ‘Giant Kew’) Fruits at Ambient Storage Condition

Abstract

The present investigation was taken up at Research Laboratory, Department of Horticulture, Aromatic and Medicinal Plants, Mizoram University, Aizawl to study the effect of nine post-harvest treatments viz., fruit dipping in NAA at 100 mg L^-1, gibberellic acid at 100 mg L^-1, salicylic acid at 5 mM L^-1, covering the fruit with perforated polythene and newspaper bag, fruit coating with wax at 60 g L^-1, fruit dipping in maleic hydrazide at 500 mg L^-1, covering of fruit with dry straw and control, on fruit physico-chemical qualities and shelf life of pineapple cv. Giant Kew. Experiment was laid out in complete randomized design with three replications. Study revealed that among the different treatments, fruits treated with GA₃ at 100 mg L^-1 showed delayed response of ripening and high shelf life (19.05 days) during storage. At 15 DAS, skin colour remained quarter yellow (average score: 3.2), flesh colour remained more white than yellow (average score: 3), whereas, fruits showed considerably higher amount of TSS (20.41°Brix), TSS : acid ratio (20.21), total sugar (13.67%) and ascorbic acid content (18.49 mg 100 g pulp^-1) with less weight loss (11.61%) due to this treatment. However, among the other treatments, SA (5.0 mM) performed well in terms of fruit physico-chemical properties and shelf life. SA treated fruits showed less external disease (average score: 1.8) and fruit decay (average score: 2.0) with high juice content (71.63%) and TSS (19.12 °Brix) at 15 DAS along with high shelf life (17.05 days).