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Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa

In the imperial Gazetteer of India 1878, Pusa was recorded as a government estate of about 1350 acres in Darbhanba. It was acquired by East India Company for running a stud farm to supply better breed of horses mainly for the army. Frequent incidence of glanders disease (swelling of glands), mostly affecting the valuable imported bloodstock made the civil veterinary department to shift the entire stock out of Pusa. A British tobacco concern Beg Sutherland & co. got the estate on lease but it also left in 1897 abandoning the government estate of Pusa. Lord Mayo, The Viceroy and Governor General, had been repeatedly trying to get through his proposal for setting up a directorate general of Agriculture that would take care of the soil and its productivity, formulate newer techniques of cultivation, improve the quality of seeds and livestock and also arrange for imparting agricultural education. The government of India had invited a British expert. Dr. J. A. Voelcker who had submitted as report on the development of Indian agriculture. As a follow-up action, three experts in different fields were appointed for the first time during 1885 to 1895 namely, agricultural chemist (Dr. J. W. Leafer), cryptogamic botanist (Dr. R. A. Butler) and entomologist (Dr. H. Maxwell Lefroy) with headquarters at Dehradun (U.P.) in the forest Research Institute complex. Surprisingly, until now Pusa, which was destined to become the centre of agricultural revolution in the country, was lying as before an abandoned government estate. In 1898. Lord Curzon took over as the viceroy. A widely traveled person and an administrator, he salvaged out the earlier proposal and got London’s approval for the appointment of the inspector General of Agriculture to which the first incumbent Mr. J. Mollison (Dy. Director of Agriculture, Bombay) joined in 1901 with headquarters at Nagpur The then government of Bengal had mooted in 1902 a proposal to the centre for setting up a model cattle farm for improving the dilapidated condition of the livestock at Pusa estate where plenty of land, water and feed would be available, and with Mr. Mollison’s support this was accepted in principle. Around Pusa, there were many British planters and also an indigo research centre Dalsing Sarai (near Pusa). Mr. Mollison’s visits to this mini British kingdom and his strong recommendations. In favour of Pusa as the most ideal place for the Bengal government project obviously caught the attention for the viceroy.

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20211
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Subject: Fruit Science × Author: SINGH, GURPREET × End date: 2021 × Start date: 2021 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    INFLUENCE OF PLANT EXTRACT ON POSTHARVEST QUALITY AND SHELF LIFE OF PAPAYA FRUIT UNDER AMBIENT STORAGE
    (DRPCAU, PUSA, 2021) SINGH, GURPREET; PRASAD, K.
    Postharvest losses and their management in papaya fruits are always a prime concern for researchers. Hence, studies were conducted to derive an eco-friendly and health-friendly postharvest treatment for quality retention of papaya fruit. The commercial papaya cultivar of Bihar ‘Red Lady’ was assessed for postharvest losses during harvesting and storage under ambient conditions (25 ± 4º C and 65 ± 5% RH). Further, for reduction in fruit decay and retention of postharvest quality, different treatment of plant extract such as ‘Neem oil’ (2% v/v), ‘Pummelo peel extract’ (1 % v/v), ‘Pummelo essential oil’ (0.1% v/v), ‘Turmeric leaf extract’ (1% v/v), ‘Turmeric essential oil’ (0.1% v/v) along with control (water dip) were attempted as edible coating dip treatment on papaya fruit cv. ‘Red Lady’ for five minutes followed by storage at ambient conditions (25 ± 4º C and 65 ± 5% RH) for recording of observations on external and internal quality attributes during the storage period. From results, it has been observed that papaya fruit exhibited high postharvest losses which was more than 10% in terms of pathological loss and up to 15 % in terms of physiological loss. These losses could be reduced/managed significantly by the application of plant extract treatment. Among the attempted postharvest plant extract treatments ‘Turmeric leaf extract (1% v/v)’ was found to be the most effective treatment. It reduced the postharvest decay and physiological loss significantly over the control. It also improved the fruit gloss score (7.00), lowered the physiological activities of fruit in terms of respiration (6.55 CO2 kg-1 h-1) and ethylene evolution rate (60.97 μl kg-1 h-1) over control fruit (5.77, 8.34 ml CO2 kg-1 h-1 and 69.41 μl kg-1 h-1 respectively). Further this treatment positively influenced the activity of fruit browning and senescence causing enzymes such as polyphenol oxidase and lipoxygenase as it exhibited the least polyphenol oxidase (0.309 Δ A410 O.D. min-1 g-1 FW) and lipoxygenase (3.454 Δ A470 μmol g-1 FW min-1) enzyme activity compared to that of control fruit (0.350 Δ A410 O.D. min-1 g-1 FW and 4.128 Δ A470 μmol g-1 FW min-1 respectively). In terms of internal quality attributes, the treatment ‘Turmeric leaf extract (1% v/v)’ maintained the internal quality without exerting any adverse effect on TSS, titratable acidity, ascorbic acid, total carotenoids and total phenolics over control fruit. This treatment also improved the sensory score (7.2) compared to that of untreated fruits (5.8). Our results suggest that plant extract such as ‘Turmeric leaf extract (1% v/v)’ is an eco-friendly and health friendly edible coating approach which retain the external and internal quality of papaya fruit, reduce postharvest decay and extends shelf life of papaya fruit at ambient storage. Further this treatment improves the market value (sensory attribute) of fruit leading to better returns to the grower.