Mahmuda Siddiqua
Department of Food and Nutrition, KCC Women’s College, Life Science School, Khulna University, Khulna-9208, Bangladesh
Shamim Ahmed Kamal Uddin Khan
Agrotechnology Discipline, Life Science School, Khulna University, Khulna-9208, Bangladesh
Parsa Tabassum
Department of Food and Nutrition, KCC Women’s College, Life Science School, Khulna University, Khulna-9208, Bangladesh
Sabiha Sultana
Agrotechnology Discipline, Life Science School, Khulna University, Khulna-9208, Bangladesh
Banana; Hot water; Neem leaf extract; Postharvest loss; Shelf life
Noapara, Jessore
Postharvest and Agro-processing
Four bunches of the fresh mature banana (cv. Sabri) free from any kind of injury were harvested in the morning from farmers field in Noapara, Jessore, Bangladesh. The study was carried out in the ambient conditions. The experiment was conducted by following Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications for the treatments having 10 banana fruits in each replication. The postharvest treatments used in the current study included as T1 = Control, T2 = Hot water (HW) at 45°C for 2 minute, T3 = HW at 45°C for 5 minute, T4 = 20% neem leaf extract (NLE), T5 = 40% neem leaf extract (NLE), T6 = HW at 45°C for 2 minute + 20% NLE, T7 = HW at 45°C for 2 minute + 40% NLE, T8 = HW at 45°C for 5 minute + 20% NLE, T9 = HW at 45°C for 5 minute + 40% NLE. For hot water treatment, selected bananas were immersed into hot water (45°C) for 2 or 5 minutes before placing them to treat with 20% or 40% neem extract by spraying. Fresh green leaves of neem (about 250g) were collected from Khulna University campus and blended with 500 ml of distilled water. Then 20% or 40% neem leaf extract solution was prepared by taking 60 ml or 120 ml raw neem leaf extract in 500 ml beaker with the addition of 240 ml or 180 ml distilled water separately to make a final volume of 300 ml (Mia, 2003). Finally the extracts solutions were filtered before use and stored in refrigerator at 5°C. During the storage period, the treated banana samples were observed everyday for physical changes, but chemical changes were measured at one day interval using standard procedures for two weeks.
The changes of fruit peel color and firmness was determined on the basis of eye estimation by using a numerical scale of 1-7 for color (Dadzie and Orchard, 1997) where 1 = 100% green, 2 = 1-25% yellow, 3 = 26-50% yellow, 4 = 5175% yellow, 5 = 76-100%, 6 = fully yellow, 7 = rotten and 1-5 for firmness (Dang et al., 2008) where 1 = Hard, 2 = Sprung, 3 = slightly soft, 4 = Eating soft and 5 = Over soft. The percent of infected area on banana fruit was determined by visual observation and following a numerical scale of 1-5 for disease severity (Ullah, 2007). The percentage of disease infected banana is called disease incidence which was calculated. Shelf life of banana treated with different treatments was calculated by counting the number of days until the score for firmness and disease severity retains less than or equal to 3 and color score attains less than or equal to 5. The number of days for attaining a loss of 25% weight was also considered to calculate shelf life. The average of the days required to reach at the mentioned level of the considered parameters was recorded as the shelf life of fruits Total soluble solid of banana was estimated by using Abbe’s refract meter (REF 10/111). A drop of banana juice squeezed from the banana was dropped on the prism of the refract meter. Percent of TSS was obtained as the direct reading from the instrument (Ranganna, 1979). Titratable acidity was determined. Vitamin C content in the sample was determined
The collected data on various parameters were statistically analyzed by using Statistical Tool for Agricultural Research (STAR), Version 2.0.1 (IRRI, 2013). The means for all the treatments were calculated and analyses of variances (ANOVA) for all the parameters were performed by 'F' test. The significance of differences between the pairs of means was compared by least significance difference (LSD) at the 5% levels of probability (Gomez and Gomez, 1984).
J Bangladesh Agril Univ 16(3): 351–356, 2018
Journal