Optimization of quality of green bell peppers in storage by pre-harvest spraying of calcium chloride and packaging with cellophane film

Mohammadi, Meysam; Khademi, Orang

doi:10.22034/iuvs.2016.32795

Optimization of quality of green bell peppers in storage by pre-harvest spraying of calcium chloride and packaging with cellophane film

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Meysam Mohammadi ¹

Orang Khademi ²

¹ M.Sc. Graduate, Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Ilam University, Ilam, Iran

² Assistant Professor. Department of Horticulture, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran

10.22034/iuvs.2016.32795

Abstract

In order to reduce losses and preserve the fruit quality of green bell pepper cultivar “California Wonder”, this study was designed by using a factorial experiment on the basic of a completely randomized design at Ilam University. Treatments were consisted of pre-harvest spraying of calcium chloride 0.5% (CaCl2), packaging with cellophane, pre-harvest spraying of CaCl2 0.5% with packing of cellophane (CaCl2+ cellophane) and control (without spraying and cellophane packaging). Fruits were stored at 10°C and relative humidity 90-95 percent for 20 days and characteristics were evaluated at harvest, and after 10 and 20 days storage. Results showed that increasing the storage period decreased marketability and the quality of the fruits, but all treatments preserved the quality and marketability of the fruits over the storage period. Among the treatments, weight losses and variation in total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), taste index (TSS/TA ratio), chlorophyll and carotenoid content were lower under calcium + cellophane treatment than what recorded for other treatments and control. Also, calcium + cellophane combination had higher marketability, texture firmness, vitamin C, total phenol and antioxidant capacity. Although, for some characteristics, the treatment’s effect was not significantly different with pre-harvest spraying of CaCl2 0.5%. Altogether, all treatments preserved the quality of fruits in post-harvest, but the combination of calcium + cellophane was better than other treatments. Therefore, using a combination of calcium + cellophane is recommended as a method for reducing losses and maintaining the quality and marketability of green bell peppers during the storing and marketing.

Keywords

Marketable

Packaging

Post-harvest

Weight loss

20.1001.1.26764814.1395.2.2.1.4

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