Thermal Post Harvest Treatments for Improving Pomegranate Fruit Quality and Shelf Life

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Hort. Res. Station, Sabahia, Alex., Hort. Res. In., A.R.C. Giza, Egypt.

2 Mamoura Bot. Garden. Alex. Hort. Res. Instit. Agric. Res. Center, Egypt

Abstract

The experiment was carried out during 2006 and 2007 seasons on Balady pomegranate fruits to study the effect of thermal post-harvest treatments through intermittent warming (33oC for 3 days and 20oC for 24 h) to reduce chilling injury and improving keeping quality of the fruits under test during storage at 0oC and 5oC with 85- 90% RH.
Heat treated fruits remained 60 days of storage except the fruits stored at 0oc which remained 45 days of storage. Intermittent warming (IW) had significant effect on juice volume, titratable acidity, soluble solids content, vitamin C, anthocyanin and weight loss of the fruit while intermittent warming (33oC for 3 days and transfer to 20°C for 24 h and storage at 5oC) and (20°C for 24 and stored at 5°C) were noticed  reduced chilling injury. As the storage period reduced, juice volume and titratable acidity while SSC%, anthocyanin content and weight loss increased during storage period in all treatments.

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