Beeswax Coating Loaded with Putrescine to Enhance the Quality and Shelf Life of Plum cv. Satluj Purple

Climacteric ripening in plum fruit is characterized by enhanced respiration rate accompanying by an autocatalytic ethylene production that results in fruit decay, loss of flavour and easily susceptible to softening. The present investigation was carried out to enhance the quality and storability of plum cv. Satluj Purple with different concentrations of beeswax and putrescine i.e. beeswax (5 %) + putrescine (1 mM), beeswax (5 %) + putrescine (2 mM), beeswax (5 %) + putrescine (3 mM), beeswax (10 %) + putrescine (1 mM), beeswax (10 %) + putrescine (2 mM) and beeswax (10 %) + putrescine (3 mM), while control fruits were dipped in distilled water. All the treated and control fruits were dried, packed in CFB boxes with 5 % ventilation and stored for 15 days under ambient conditions. The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design replicated thrice. Fruits from each treatment were analyzed for physico-biochemical characteristics at an interval of three days. Results revealed that physiological loss in weight, spoilage and carotenoids content increased with the advancement of storage period whereas fruit firmness, TA, total phenols, ascorbic acid and chlorophyll ‘a’ and chlorophyll ‘b’ showed declining trend with the increase in storage intervals. Other parameters like TSS, total and reducing sugars showed an increasing trend at earlier stages of storage afterwards started declining towards the end of storage period. Based on this, it was concluded that treatment beeswax (5 %) + putrescine (3 mM) and beeswax (10 %) + putrescine (3 mM) was effective in delaying the ripening process and can be used to extend the shelf life of plum fruit