Effects of Different Postharvest Treatments on Ripening and Quality of Banana (Musa sapientum)

Banana is one of the most common fruits that have been consumed in everyday diet. Due to its huge demand and availability banana production has been very popular among various agricultural countries. Therefore, innovative cost-effective method is necessary to promote and smoothen the banana production among farmers commercially mitigating the demand. In the experiment, two varieties of banana have been taken as materials. Here T2 was treated with hot water (500C) for five minutes. T3 was treated with hot water (50oC) and packaged with perforated polythene. T4 was mixed with neem (Azadirachta indica) leaves extracts and packaged with perforated polythene. T5 was treated with garlic (Allium sativum) cloves extracts and packaged with perforated polythene. T1 was control, not treated with nothing. The highest total weight loss (18.98%) was found at the 12th day of storage in control (T1) and T5 illustrated the lowest total weight loss (8.62%). The highest color score (5.10) and lowest color score (4.10) were found in Kobri and Amritsagor, respectively. At the 12th day of storage untreated bananas showed the lowest color score (2.5) but T5 showed the highest color score (4.5).At the 15th day of storage highest firmness score (5.00) was in T5 but the lowest firmness score (3.42) in control (T1). Amritsagor showed the highest disease severity than other varieties, at the 15th day of storage, the T1 showed the highest disease severity (30%) whereas the T5 showed the lowest disease severity (13%). All the postharvest treatments exhibited significance differences in influencing disease incidence. Control treatment was showed the highest disease incidence (72%) and the lowest (36%) in T5. This study shows various treatments approach to be effective and economic comparing to traditional method of postharvest treatments. Therefore, the post harvest treatments can be adapted as a new method of banana quick ripening with good quality fruits suitable for both domestic and farming approach especially for temperate low income country like Bangladesh