Influence of Microbial Consortia on Fruit Quality Attributes and Shelf-Life Extension in Mango (Mangifera indica L.) cv. Kesar

Abstract

Mango (Mangifera indica L.) cv. Kesar is an economically valuable fruit crop but preserving the quality of fruits and improving their shelf-life are significant issues during post-handling. The current study was conducted in 2022-23 and 2023-24, in order to assess the effect of microbial consortia on the quality traits and shelf-life behaviour of mango cv. Kesar. The experiment was carried out on a Randomized Block Design that had ten treatments that were individual and combined applications of Azotobacter, phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB), potassium-solubilizing bacteria (KSB), sulphur-solubilizing bacteria (SSB) and zinc-solubilizing bacteria (ZnSB). There was a substantial increase in microbial consortia treatments in the biochemical quality parameters. The highest total soluble solids (7.81 °B), total sugars (14.15%), reducing sugars (5.15%) and ascorbic acid was observed in the treatment T10 (T2 + Azotobacter + PSB + ZnSB) and the lowest values were all recorded in the untreated control (T1). Titratable acidity was directly related with the trend where T10 registered the lowest acidity in the pool (3.19%). The microbial treatments also significantly enhanced the shelf-life parameters with T10 having the least physiological loss (4.53, 11.14, 18.10 and 38.26% of weight loss at 4 days, 8 days, 12 days, and 16 days of storage, respectively) and minimum spoilage (21.67). Fruits kept at T10 showed a better TSS, retention of ascorbic acid and slower acidity reduction than fruits kept in control conditions. The findings also suggest that microbial consortia, especially the one that was utilized in T10, are useful in improving the quality of fruits and retarding the postharvest decay, thus increasing the shelf-life and enhancing the commercialization of mango cv. Kesar. It can be concluded that the application of integrated microbial inoculation may be suggested as a sustainable and environmentally-friendly approach to postharvest quality control in mango.