Enhancing quality of banana by using different post-harvest treatments

Introduction

Globally and also in Indian condition banana is mostly traded under ambient conditions which caused high post-harvest losses and shorter shelf life. Mature green harvested banana quickly deteriorates under ambient conditions due to faster respiration and higher ethylene production which caused rapid ripening and fruit softening with increased fruit spoilage (Mandal et al., 2019) [16] . Accelerated ripening and short shelf life of banana under tropical climate are the major constraints in postharvest handling. Due to its rapid ripening nature, enormous postharvest losses occur and which in turn affect the farmer's benefit. Since banana is a climacteric and perishable fruit, application of post-harvest treatments become necessary to delay the ripening to reduce losses and to improve and maintain the colour and quality by slowing down the metabolic activities of the produce which results in increased keeping quality and marketability of the fruits for a longer period of time (Rao and Chundawat, 1986) [22] . Therefore, an experiment has been planned to study the effect of postharvest treatment of chemicals, wax emulsion and storage conditions on quality of banana (Musa paradisiaca L.).

Material and methodology

The experiment was carried out at laboratory of Post-Harvest Technology, Department of Horticulture, Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth Rahuri, Dist. Ahmednagar during 2021 in the month of June and November. The experiment was laid out in Factorial Completely Randomized Design (FCRD) consisting of twenty four treatment combinations along with control. The experiment was replicated twice (2) times.

Details of treatment combination

Results and discussion

Chemical parameters Total soluble solids ( 0 Brix): The data on effect of different postharvest treatment of chemicals, wax emulsion and storage conditions on TSS ( 0 Brix) of banana recorded during storage for trial I, trial II and pooled analysis have been presented in Table 1. TSS content of banana fruits exhibited increasing trend with storage period and declined at the end storage period.

Effect of chemicals

On 6 th day of storage, different chemicals showed significant influence on TSS content of banana. The minimum TSS was recorded in C 1 i.e. hexanal 3% (6.75 ⁰Brix) which was at par with the treatment C 3 (6.77 ⁰Brix)

while maximum TSS was recorded in the treatment C 4 i.e. salicylic acid 2 mM (7.13 ⁰Brix) which was at par with the treatment C 5 (7.12 ⁰Brix). On 12 th day of storage, TSS was significantly influenced by different chemical treatments.

Effect of storage conditions

The data with respect to TSS content of fruit was varied significantly among the different storage conditions. In case of storage conditions, a change in TSS was found to be very fast in S 1 than S 2 .On 18 th day of storage, fruits under ambient conditions i.e. S 1 recorded TSS content of 19.31 ⁰Brix which was found be increased from 2.03 to 19.31 ⁰Brix. On 24 th day of storage, S 1 ambient conditions were discarded due to spoilage and the treatment S 2 recorded the TSS content of 18.78 ⁰Brix at the end of storage.

Interaction effect of different chemicals and wax emulsion

The interaction effect of different chemicals and wax emulsion on TSS content of fruit was found to be nonsignificant during storage.

Interaction effect of different chemicals, wax emulsion and storage conditions

The interaction effect of different chemicals, wax emulsion and storage conditions showed significant results with respect TSS. The TSS content of banana fruits was found to be increased fast under ambient condition than cold storage. TSS content of fruits under control was increased from 2.02 to 9.67 ⁰Brix within 8 days of storage whereas, average content of all treated fruits was increased up to 2.02 to 18.78 ⁰Brix under ambient conditions.

Total soluble solids content of the fruits reached maximum at the ripe stage and started declining towards the end of shelf life. The increase in total soluble solids during ripening was due to breakdown of starch and polysaccharides in to sugars. Further due to over ripening/senescence the sugar is degraded to CO 2 because of respiration (Wills et al., 1989) [25] . The slower changes in TSS level in hexanal treated fruits could be due to reduced the activities of enzymes such as invertase and an amylase involved in the hydrolysis of stored carbohydrates into soluble sugars. Similar finding has been reported by Hutchinson et al. (2018) [10] in papaya, Ambuko et al. (2006) [1] in banana, Baraza et al. (2012) [3] in passion fruit, Mendoza et al. (1972) [17] in mango and Ashwini et al. (2018) [2] in banana. Wax coating lowered internal CO 2 and O 2 concentrations which was used for hydrolysis process and lowered the conversion of acids into sugars. These results are in agreement with Maharaj and Sankat (1990) [15] with wax in papaya, Ramakrishna and Haribabu (1999) [20] with CaCl 2 and wax emulsion in papaya, Gautam et al. (2003) [8] in mango, Devi and Arumugam (2005) [5] , Patel et al. (2010) [18] in banana, Dhaka et al. (2001) [1] in Totapuri mangoes and Jawadagi et al. (2013) [12] in custard apple. Fruits stored at cold storage condition showed minimum total soluble solids observed that gradual accumulation of total soluble solids compared to ambient temperature. The slowdown of enzymatic activity reported by delayed total soluble solids to reach peak. Finding of this study supported by Crismas et al. (2018) [4] in banana.

The data with respect to on changes in total sugars of banana fruits as influenced by different postharvest treatments of chemicals, wax emulsion and storage conditions have been presented in Table 2. Total sugars followed increasing trend and then declined at ripening during storage irrespective of postharvest treatments, wax emulsion and storage conditions.

Effect of chemicals

On 6 th day of storage, individual effect of different chemicals was found significant influence on total sugars content of banana fruits. The minimum total sugars were recorded in C 1 i.e. hexanal 3% (6.12%) followed by the treatment C 3 (6.18%) while maximum total sugars recorded in C 4 i.e. salicylic acid 2 mM (7.04%) which was at par with the treatment C 5 (7.02%) on similar days of storage. On 12 th day of storage, total sugars were found to be significantly influence by different chemicals. The treatment C 1 i.e. hexanal 3% recorded minimum total sugars (10.70%) followed by the treatment C 3 (10.78%) whereas the treatment C 4 i.e. salicylic acid 2 mM recorded maximum total sugars (13.74%) followed by the treatment C 5 (13.70%). On 18 th day of storage, fruits treated with C 1 i.e. hexanal 3% showed minimum total sugars (15.72%) while fruits treated with C 4 i.e. salicylic acid 2 mM recorded maximum total sugars (16.28%). On 24 th day of storage, the treatment C 1 i.e. hexanal 3% recorded total sugar content of 16.07%.

Effect of wax emulsion

On 6 th day of storage, wax emulsion resulted significant effect on total sugars content of banana fruits during storage. The minimum total sugars were recorded in W 2 i.e. wax emulsion 8% (6.50%) while maximum total sugars recorded in W 1 i.e. wax emulsion 6% (6.67%).On 12 th day of storage, effect of wax emulsion showed significant influenced on total sugars. The treatment W 2 i.e. wax emulsion 8% recorded minimum total sugars (12.12%) whereas the treatment W 1 i.e. wax emulsion 6% recorded maximum total sugars (12.34%).On 18 th day of storage, minimum total sugars were recorded in W 2 i.e. wax emulsion 8% (15.87%) while maximum total sugars recorded in W 1 i.e. wax emulsion 6% (15.92%).On 24 th day of storage, only treatment W 2 i.e. wax emulsion 8% retained total sugars content of 16.07%.

Effect of storage conditions

Total sugars content of banana fruits was varied significantly with different storage conditions. Increase in total sugars content was relatively higher in S 1 than S 2 . On 18 th day of storage, fruits under ambient conditions S 1 recorded total sugars content of 17.71% at the end of shelf life. On 24 th day of storage, the fruits stored under S 1 i.e. ambient conditions were discarded due to spoilage and less overall acceptability. Fruits under cold storage S 2 recorded total sugar content of 16.07%.

Interaction between different chemicals and wax emulsion

On 6 th day of storage, the interaction effect of different chemicals and wax emulsion showed significant influence on total sugars content of banana fruits. Fruits treated with C 1 W 2 i.e. hexanal 3% + wax emulsion 8% recorded minimum total sugars (6.05%) followed by the treatment C 3 W 2 (6.10%) while maximum total sugars (7.16%) recorded in C 4 W 1 i.e. salicylic acid 2 mM + wax emulsion 6% followed by the treatment C 5 W 1 (7.10%). On 12 th day of storage, total sugars showed significant variation irrespective of chemicals and wax emulsion. The treatment combination of C 1 W 2 i.e. hexanal 3% + wax emulsion 8% recorded minimum total sugars (10.60%) followed by the treatment C 3 W 2 (10.67%) whereas the treatment combination C 4 W 1 i.e. salicylic acid 2 mM + wax emulsion 6% recorded maximum total sugars (13.90%). On 18 th day of storage, fruits treated with C 1 W 2 i.e. hexanal 3% + wax emulsion 8% recorded minimum total sugars (15.65%) while fruits treated with C 4 W 2 i.e. salicylic acid 2 mM + wax emulsion 8% recorded maximum total sugars (16.28%). On 24 th of day of storage, the treatment C 1 W 2 i.e. hexanal 3% + wax emulsion 8% retained total sugar content of 16.07%.

Interaction effect chemicals and storage conditions

On 6 th day of storage, the data regarding total sugars content was varied significantly irrespective of different chemicals and storage conditions. The minimum total sugars content was observed in C 1 S 2 i.e. hexanal 3% + cold storage (5.61%) followed by the treatment C 3 S 2 (5.68%) while maximum total sugars recorded in C 4 S 1 i.e. salicylic acid 2 mM + ambient temperature (7.37%) which was at par with the treatment C 5 S 1 (7.36%). On 12 th day of storage, effect of chemicals and storage conditions showed significant influence on total sugar content of fruits. The treatment combination of C 1 S 2 i.e. hexanal 3% + cold storage recorded minimum total sugars (9.84%) followed by the treatment C 3 W 2 (9.92%) whereas the treatment combination C 4 S 1 i.e. salicylic acid 2 mM + ambient temperature recorded maximum total sugars (14.83%) followed by the treatment C 5 S 1 (14.76%). On 18 th day of storage, fruits treated with C 1 S 2 i.e. hexanal 3% + cold storage observed minimum total sugars (14.72%) while fruits treated with C 4 S 2 i.e. salicylic acid 2 mM + cold storage recorded maximum total sugars (16.28%). On 24 th day of storage, fruits treated with C 1 S 2 i.e. hexanal 3% + cold storage remained storage with total sugar content of 16.07%.

Interactions effect of wax emulsion and storage conditions

On 6 th day of storage, the interaction effect of wax emulsion and storage conditions showed significant influence on total sugars. The minimum total sugars were observed in W 2 S 2 i.e. wax emulsion 8% + cold storage (6.07%) while maximum total sugars recorded in W 1 S 1 i.e. wax emulsion 6% + ambient temperature (7.09%). On 12 th day of storage, the treatment combination W 2 S 2 i.e. wax emulsion 8% + cold storage recorded minimum total sugars (11.16%) whereas the treatment combination W 1 S 1 i.e. wax emulsion 6% + ambient temperature recorded maximum total sugars (13.31%). On 18 th day of storage, fruits treated with W 2 S 2 i.e. wax emulsion 8% + cold storage noted minimum total sugars (15.50%) while fruits treated with W 2 S 1 i.e. wax emulsion 8% + ambient temperature recorded maximum total sugars (17.71%). On 24 th day of storage, the treatment combination W 2 S 2 i.e. wax emulsion 8% + cold storage recorded total sugars content of 16.07%.

Interactions effect of chemicals, wax emulsion and storage conditions

The interactions effect of chemicals, wax emulsion and storage conditions revealed significant variation in total sugars throughout the storage period. Fruits stored in ambient conditions exhibited faster increase in total sugars than cold storage irrespective of chemicals, wax emulsion and storage conditions.

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