Effect of Post-Harvest Treatments on Physiochemical Properties of Indian Jujube (Ziziphus mauritiana Lamk.) during Ambient and Cold Storage Conditions

Abstract

The effect of post-harvest application of calcium chloride (CaCl2) and gibberellic acid (GA3) on physiochemical properties of ber fruits were studied. Mature ber fruits cv. Umran were dipped in aqueous solutions of calcium chloride (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5%) and gibberellic acid (20, 40 and 60 ppm), for 5 minutes and packed in netlon bags for storage under ambient and cold storage conditions. Ber fruits treated with 1.5% CaCl2 could be stored for longer duration in both storage conditions with higher retention of physiochemical quality of the fruits. Results revealed that physiological loss in weight, fruit weight, palatability rating, titratable acidity showed a declining trend with advancement of storage period and other parameters i.e. total soluble solids, ascorbic acid, reducing sugar, and total sugars showed an increase up to 9 days in ambient storage condition and up to 12 days in cold storage condition, but after 9 days in ambient storage condition and after 12 days in cold storage condition, a decline trend was observed in these parameters respectively. Storage life was extended to 9 days and 15 days of ber fruits treated with 1.5% CaCl2 under ambient and cold storage conditions, respectively.