Influence of Coating Developed from Oligomer Isolated from Lac Resin on Post-Harvest Quality and Shelf Life of Peaches (Prunus Persica L.)

Large quantities of fresh fruits are produced that never reach the consumers due to heavy post-harvest losses, lack of storage, transportation care & less acceptable quality. These losses are not only concerned in terms of revenue but it also concern in terms of health, life style and environment. To full fill consumer demand and environmental, several methods are being utilized to reduce these losses of fruits. Fruit coatings are considered as one of the widely used methods. This work investigates the effect of fruit coating developed from oligomer (P-104), isolated from lac resin on quality of peach (Prunus persica L.) when stored at room temperature (38 ± 2 °C) and at 4 °C temperature. Fruit quality was evaluated by measuring physiological weight loss, color and textural changes as well as microbiological evaluation at a regular interval of four days. When kept at room temperature, uncoated peaches remained fresh and microbiologically safe for 4 days only while shelf life of coated peaches increased to 12 days. Again the shelf life of coated peaches prolonged to 24 days when stored at 4 °C. These results showed that combine effect of coating and low storage temperature could improve shelf life of peaches, indicating that coating and low temperature preservation could be a potential method for fruits preservation. Thus, this study suggests that fruits may be coated and preserved at 4 °C to ensure the health, life style, economic and environment by extending the shelf life of peaches.