Physico-chemical changes of Khasi mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco) fruits as influenced by plant extracts, essential oils and natural coatings

Abstract

An experiment was conducted during 2017-18 in the Post-harvest laboratory of the Department of Horticulture and Department of Plant Pathology, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat to study the effect of physico-chemical changes of Khasi mandarin fruits as influenced by plant extracts, essential oils and natural coatings. Khasi mandarin fruits were treated with two best Plant extracts and essential oils (amongst 6 plant extracts and essential oils tried) alone or in combination with two natural coatings viz. Aloe vera gel and chitosan. After the treatment the fruits were wrapped in perforated 50 micron polyethylene bags and stored under ambient condition and various physico-chemical and sensory evaluations were taken up across the storage period. The results revealed that though Bavistin treatment recorded higher values with respect to physic-chemical and sensory evaluation; there was no significant difference between the Bavistin treatment and Neem extract treatment and also with the combination of Aloe vera gel (1%)+Neem extract(10%) (in some of the observations). Since plant extracts are environment friendly and do not leave any chemical residue as against use of chemical fungicides (like Bavistin), use of Neem leaf extract and combination of Aloe vera gel (0.1%) + Neem extract(10%) can be advocated for enhancing shelf life of Khasi mandarin fruits.