Authors: Nisha Gupta S K Jain
Publish Date: 2012/07/14
Volume: 51, Issue: 10, Pages: 2499-2507
Abstract
The use of plant extracts could be a useful alternative to synthetic fungicides in the post harvest handling of fruits and vegetables The aim of this study was to access the efficacy of extracts obtained from four plants neem Pongamia custard apple leaf and marigold flowers on the extension of shelf life of mango fruits cv Dashehri under two storage conditions Cool store and ambient condition The fruits were treated with 2 concentrations of each plant extracts 10 and 20 were placed in perforated linear low density poly ethylene bags and stored in storage conditions viz cool storage and ambient condition respectively The treatment of neem leaf extract in combination with cool storage gave encouraging results Up to the end of the storage study the treatment combination of 20 neem leaf extract and cool store completely inhibited the pathogens and no spoilage was observed There was minimum physiological loss in weight 624 minimum girth reduction 062 maximum ascorbic acid content 2996 mg/ 100 g of pulp maximum acidity 019 minimum pH 528 maximum total soluble solids 2096 maximum total sugars 1250 reducing sugars 412 and non reducing sugars 796 and best organoleptic score 793/10 in this interaction The inhibitory effect of neem leaf extract was ascribed to the presence of active principle azadirachtin
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