Effect of packaging materials and post-harvest essential oil treatments on the storage behavior of potato cultivars
Abstract
The present investigation entitled “Effect of packaging materials and post-harvest essential oil
treatments on the storage behaviour of potato cultivars” was carried out in Post-Harvest Laboratory of
the Department of Horticulture Sciences, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar during the year
2015-16 and 2016-17. The four potato varieties, i.e., Kufri Bahar, Kufri Sadabahar, Kufri Surya and
Kufri Pushkar were packed in gunny bags, nylon netted bag, cotton bag, polyethylene bag (LDPE) and
plastic crates in all the possible combinations under ambient conditions in first experiment. Under
second experiment four types of sprout suppressant i.e., clove oil, mint oil, neem oil and tea tree oil
with their three concentration i.e., 10 ml/litre, 15 ml/litre and 20 ml/litre were applied on potato tubers
cv. Kufri Pushkar and stored in cardboard boxes for various parameters. The loss in weight of tubers
due to physiological activities, decaying and sprouting increased with the increase in storage period.
Dry matter content and specific gravity, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugar and total sugars also
increased with increasing storage period. There was a marked reduction in phenol, ascorbic acid and
starch content of potato tubers during storage up to the end of the experiment.
Among the packaging materials, plastic crates showed the highest PLW (19.0 and 18.2%),
whereas, LDPE bags the lowest (13.3 and 12.5%), decay loss was noticed highest in LDPE bags (49.7
and 47.7%) followed by cotton bags (36.4 and 38.1%) and sprouting loss was observed highest in
plastic crates (83.3 and 15.0%), whereas, lowest in LDPE bags (55.1 and 7.2%) on 90th day of storage
during first and second trial, respectively. Specific gravity showed non-significant difference with
respect to packaging material but all the varieties showed their significant difference. LDPE bags
showed highest value for ascorbic acid (14.54 and 16.21mg), phenols (26.57 and 25.93 mg) and dry
matter (17.11 and 17.09%), whereas, plastic crates showed lowest value for ascorbic acid (11.79 and
10.96 mg), phenols (17.33 and 18.15 mg) and dry matter (16.12 and 15.77%) at the end of storage
period in both year of storage study. Among the varieties, PLW was recorded highest in Kufri Bahar
(16.97 and 15.54%), whereas, lowest in Kufri Pushkar (14.29 and 13.65%), decay loss was maximum
in Kufri Pushkar (47.2 and 46.4%) while, minimum in Kufri Kufri Sadabahr (19.4 and 19.7%). So, far
the variety is concerned, Kufri Sadabahar and among packaging materials, gunny bags followed by
nylon netted bags showed overall better performance and Kufri Pushkar showed poor storage life.
Amongst sprout suppressant, clove showed minimum PLW (8.13 and 7.79%), while, mint oil
maximum (10.09 and 9.76%), tea tree oil showed lowest decay loss (31.62 and 28.31%), whereas, mint
oil showed highest (37.47 and 37.41%). So far general appearance, tubers with different sprout
suppressant showed sounded tubers than potato tubers under absolute control. Among anti sprouting
agents, clove oil was significantly better while, among concentration, C2 and C3 showed better results
for all the recorded parameters.
Description
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