EFFECT OF POSTHARVEST MANAGEMENT ON SHELF LIFE AND QUALITY OF GUAVA

Abstract

The experiment was carried out in the Postharvest Laboratory of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka during the period of January 2019 to June 2019 to find out the effect of different postharvest management practices of guava to increase shelf life and quality in ambient condition. Two factor experiment viz. Factor A: P 0 (no packaging) and P viii

1 (perforated polythene) and Factor B: T (no preservatives), T 1 (Propolis 5%), T 2 (Chitosan 1%), T 3 (Gum Arabic 5%), T

(Propolis 5% + Gum arabic 5%), T 5 (Propolis 5% + Chitosan 1%), T

(Cinnamon oil 2%), T 7 (Lemongrass oil 2%) and T (Cinnamon oil 2% + Lemongrass oil 2%) were initiated for the experiment. The experiment was laid out in completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications. Various data on physical and chemical properties were collected. In case of the effect of packaging material, P 1 8 (perforated polythene) showed best performance and showed the highest shelf life (9.78 days) compared to P (no packaging) (7.89 days). Regarding preservatives, T 1 0 (Propolis 5%) gave the best results on studied parameters and showed highest shelf life (12 days) compared to other treatments and shortest shelf life was recorded from T (5.5 days). In case of combined effect of packaging materials and preservatives, at 12 days after storage (DAS), the lowest percent weight loss (6.46%) and percent dry matter content (14.63%) were found from P 1 T 1 0 whereas the highest weight loss (10.23%) and dry matter content (21.08%) was found in P 0 T . Similarly, the highest percent moisture content (85.37%), percent titratable acidity (2.23%), vitamin C content (196.60 mg/100g), percent total soluble solid (7.76%), firmness (4.30 kg/cm 2 0 ) and percent total sugar content (9.17%) were also found from the treatment combination of P 1 T 1 at 12 DAS whereas P showed the lowest results (78.92%, 0.701%, 144.4mg/100g, 5.16%, 2.10 kg/cm , 5.361%, respectively) on the respected parameters. Likewise, the highest shelf life (13.00 days) was also recorded from P 1 T whereas the lowest (5.00 days) was from P 0 T 0 . So, the treatment combination of P 1 1 T can be considered the best postharvest treatment for guava.