European Journal of Biotechnology and Bioscience

Authors
Bharati Killadi and Rekha Chaurasia

Abstract
The mango cv. ‘Dashehari’ is highly perishable in nature and cannot be stored for more than 8-10 days. There are various means to maintain the quality of fruits and prolong their availability. Spermine was used as post harvest dip-treatment to maintain the shelf life and quality of fruits. Mature and green fruits of mango cv. ‘Dashehari’ were harvested from the Institute orchard. The fruits were washed and dried at room temperature and divided in to four lots and subjected to treatments as control, modified atmospheric packaging (MAP) (100 gauge LDPE 2% vent.), 0.01% spermine and 0.01% spermine + MAP (100 gauge LDPE 2% vent.) stored under low temperature (12 ±2 ^oC and 90±5 % R.H.). The stored fruits were withdrawn from storage at weekly interval, plus 4 days under ambient condition and assessed for physico-chemical parameters. Maximum firmness was noted in fruits treated with 0.01% spermine + MAP on the 15th day of storage while other treatments it decreased at increasing rate. Pulp colour of the fruits increased gradually up to 21 days in fruits treated with 0.01% spermine + MAP and was minimum as compared to other treatments. The yellowness index (YI) value of fruits was low indicating slow carotenoid development. The total carotene content of fruits showed similar pattern thereby a positive correlation between total carotene and YI value. It can be inferred that 0.01% spermine + MAP delay ripening of fruits up to 28 days.