​Effect of Different Post-harvest Treatments of Fungicides, Botanical Oils, Food Preservatives and Packaging on Black Mould Fruit Rot of Pomegranate

Abstract

Background: Pomegranate is an important favourite fruit of tropical, subtropical and arid regions. In India, it is grown in almost all the states but a commercial orchard exists in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Some pathogens only attack the fruit from the inside, while the external surface of the fruit remains asymptomatic. Diseased fruit display poor shelf life and flavour quality attributes. Changes include losses in sugars, acids, characteristic aroma and development of off flavours. Therefore, identifying and quick characterization of these disease symptoms is paramount to their effective control and management. Since there is a lack of research work on pomegranate black mould fruit rot diseases caused by Aspergillus niger. Realizing the gaps concerns the environmental factors affecting the prevalence of disease development and management of disease, the present investigation was undertaken with the objective: Management of post-harvest black mould fruit rot diseases of pomegranate by different methods. Methods: The experiments were carried out at Division of Horticulture, UAS, GKVK, Bengaluru by using the variety Bhagwa with 11 treatments which are replicated four times in Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Different chemical, physical methods, food preservatives and packaging were used to control the black mould fruit rot. Result: The epidemiological studies revealed that injury to the pomegranate fruits was found to be a prerequisite for infection. All the fruits inoculated by cork-wounding, pin-pricking, scrapping and rubbing method exhibited symptoms of rot. Cork-wounding proved to be the most efficient method of inoculation. Post-harvest dipping in hot water, fungicides, oils and food preservatives provided effective control of the rot. Oil suspensions were found effective in preventing the rot. Food preservatives were also found effective in preventing rot, potassium metabisulphite (KMS) 0.5 percent followed by sodium benzoate 0.5 percent proved most effective against the rot in both pre-and post-inoculation treatments. Packaging for postharvest storage showed very good performance in maintaining the quality of pomegranate fruits up to 12 weeks.