Extending Shelf Life of Guava Fruits by Mint oil and UVC Treatments

A lot of quarantine methods have been developed to replace fumigants in the control of arthropods and microorganisms in post–harvest management of fruits and vegetables. That is, guava fruit is infested in Sudan by a number of hexapods which include Ceratitis capitata Weid., Ceratitis quinaria (Bez.), Certatitis cosyra WLK., Bactrocera invadens Drew, Trusta & White and Bactrocera zonata (Saunders).This study aims at using some uncommonly used treatments in improving the storability of guava fruits in Sudan. That is, UVC (ultraviolet rays type C) and coating with mint oil were used to disinfest guava from fruit flies at ambient temperature. The results, after 9 days bench storage, showed an infestation percentage of 20, 33 and 38% for mint, UVC and the control, respectively. The corresponding data for the range of infestation were 18, 20 and 48 and for the mean number of insects in infested fruits were 8.3, 8.8 and 15.2. The quality indexes studied reflected 9.5, 20.5 and 22.6% weight loss, for the mint oil, UVC and the control lots, respectively. The corresponding data for marketable retention (%) were 100, 10 and 13; the fruit firmness, 1.6, 0.3, and 0.1; acidity (%), 0.2 for all; ascorbic acid (mg/ 100 g pulp), 196, 190, and 194; reducing sugar (g/ 100g), 8.2, 7.6, and 7.6; sensory quality includes appearance (%), 84, 42, and 30; taste (%), 79, 41, and 34; flavor (%), 88, 42, and 40, respectively. These results revealed the edge of mint oil coating over UVC and the untreated lots.