Banana is a climacteric fruit and highly perishable in nature and hence, consumption period is very short after harvesting. The experiment was conducted at the Laboratory of the Department of Horticulture, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during the period from August to October 2019 to study the effects of hot water treatments and organic extracts on diseases, shelf life and quality of banana. The experiment consisted of two hot water treatments viz. hot water @ 500C for 5 min and hot water @ 550C for 5 min, and five organic extracts viz. Control, Neem extract @ (1:1), Aloe vera extract @ (1%), Garlic extract @ (1:1) and Chitosan coating @ 0.2%. The two-factor experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design with three replications. Hot water treatments and organic extracts had significant effects on all the parameters under study. Between the hot water treatments, 500C for 5 min treated fruits were more effective on physico-chemical characteristics than 550C for 5 min treated fruits at 12 days after storage (DAS). Other parameters such as weight loss, pulp to peel ratio, TSS, pH, disease incidence, disease severity were found to increase while dry matter content was found to decrease during storage period. Disease incidence and severity were also significantly higher in all fruits during the entire period of experiment except garlic extracts treated fruits. The longest shelf life (15.00 days) was found with garlic extracts treated fruits. From the experiment, it was found that hot water @ 500C for 5 min with garlic extracts treated fruits produced the superior performance on all the parameters. Therefore, it may be concluded that hot water treatment @ 500C for 5 min along with garlic extract (1:1) could be used to prolong the shelf life, reduce postharvest fungal infection and quality retention of banana.
Key words: Banana, hot water, organic extracts, diseases, shelf life, quality
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