Fruit quality and storability of peach fruits (Prunus persica) in response to hot water treatments
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Abstract
To evaluate the effect of hot water treatment on post-harvest of peach fruit cultivar ‘Early Grand’, an experiment was conducted in completely randomized design (CRD) having three repeats, at Horticultural laboratory, Department of Horticulture, The University of Agriculture Peshawar during 2013. Healthy and disease free peach fruits were dipped in hot water at various temperatures i.e. Control, 30, 40 and 50oC and its physico-chemical attributes were studied at each storage intervals of 0, 10, 20 and 30 days. Results revealed significant differences for various studied variables of peach fruits at storage fruits dipped at 50oC water for 05 minutes showed maximum fruit juice pH (3.54), Total soluble solids (11.49oBrix), Total sugars (7.6%) and TSS:TA ratio (38.06) with minimum ascorbic acid content (4.30 mg.100g-1) and titratable acidity (0.3%). The fruits treated with 40oC water were recorded with maximum fruit firmness (1.73 kg.cm-2) with minimum weight loss (2.57%) and disease incidence (14.17%). The data referred to storage periods showed that the fruits stored for 30 days recorded maximum juice content (67.87%), TSS (9.86oBrix), fruit juice pH (3.91) and TSS:TA ratio (30.14). Interaction between hot water levels and storage durations revealed that peach fruits dipped in 50oC water and stored for 30 days showed minimum total sugars (5.53%). It was concluded that hot water treatments at 40oC and storage period for 20 days induced best results on postharvest life of peach.
Keywords: Peach; Qualitative attributes; Water treatments; Shelf life