Effect of Post-Harvest Treatment of Ascorbic Acid on Shelf Life and Quality of Guava (Psidium guajava L.) Cv. Allahabad Safeda

Guava is an important fruit crop of Punjab state of India and is quite popular among fruit growers due to its yield and quality attributes. It bears profuse crop during winter season but the fruit has short shelf life and uneven ripening pattern. The influenceof post-harvest treatment of ascorbic acid on storage life and quality attributes of winter guava cv. ‘Allahabad Safeda' was investigated during two seasons (2011-12 and 2012-13). Fruits were harvested during third week of December at the firm mature stage and treated with ascorbic acid (25, 50, 100 ppm) as dip treatment for 5 minutes. Treated and untreated (control) fruits (2 kg/replication) were packed in ventilated Corrugated Fibre Board (CFB) boxes and stored in walk-in-cold room maintained at 6-8 °C and 90-95% RH. The fruits were analysed at weekly intervals up to 35 days of storage for various quality attributes. In untreated fruits, physiological loss in weight, decay incidence in fruits increased, whereas, firmness, ascorbic acid, acidity, total phenols and pectin content decreased continuously during the storage. Among the ascorbic acid treatments 100 ppm treated fruits recorded minimum weight and firmness loss, lower decay incidence and pectin methylesterase activity, higher TSS, acidity, pectin, phenol contents, and maintained highly acceptable organoleptic rating upto 21 days of cold storage. The data revealed that ascorbic acid (100 ppm) proved to be the most effective treatment in enhancing the storage life of guava fruits for three weeks as compared to control fruits which showed storage life of fruits only upto two weeks.