Studies on the effect of post harvest treatments on shelf life and quality of mango [Mangifera indica l.] cv. Amrapali

he physicochemical characteristics and shelf life of mango[Mangifera indica L.] fruits treated with calci- um chloride (CaCl2-1%, 2%), calcium nitrate (Ca(NO3)2-1%, 2%), potassium nitrate (KNO3-1%, 2%) and carboxyl methyl cellulose (CMC - 0.5, 1%) were studied. Untreated fruits served as the control. All tested treatments indicated a significant delay in the change of weight loss (16.84%), ripening (51.66%), decaying percentage (46.66) and retained firmness (3.23 kg/cm2) of fruits and biochemical qualities viz., total soluble solids(22.33Brix), sugar accumulation (18.17%) and tritratable acidity on 16th day in mango fruits compared to control. The significant (5%) impact of treatment is found on the least decay percentage in the order of fruits treated with calcium nitrate (2%) followed by 1% Ca(NO3)2, 2% CaCl2 and 1% CaCl2. Hence, it could be concluded that post harvest chemical treatment with calcium nitrate, calcium chloride (1%, 2%) has the potential to control spoilage, prolong the storage life and preserve valuable attributes of post harvest quality of mango, presumably because of its effect on inhibition of ripening and senescence processes by lowering the respiration rate