Abstract
The influence of different storage conditions (ambient temperature, refrigeration temperature, and hot air wooden cabinet storage) on nutrient retention capacity of onion bulbs was investigated. The fresh onions varieties (red and white) were obtained from a private farm (Modibbo Isah Farms, Bichi, Kano State, Nigeria). The experiment followed a completely randomized design in a factorial 3 × 2 × 8, with a total of 48 treatments, corresponding to three storage temperature conditions, two onion varieties and eight-week storage duration. The storage temperature conditions were ambient temperature (30±2°C), refrigeration storage (5-7°C) and hot air wooden cabinet storage (45-50°C) while the two onion varieties were white and red types. The prevailing relative humidity during the storage period ranged between 70 and 95%. The result showed that some constituents of the stored onions decreased with increase in the storage period and this particularly occurred in moisture content (86.89-63.76%). Some parameters showed increased values with increase in the storage period and these include ash content (0.98-1.60%), fat content (1.28-1.76%), protein content (1.45-4.75%), crude fibre content (0.96-1.74%), and carbohydrate content (9.05-28.82%). The onion types essentially exhibited diverse responses to these different storage conditions which might be linked to botanical diversity. However, the red onions seem to show greater stability in terms of nutrient retention than the white type while ambient temperature storage conditions may be regarded as the best of the three storage conditions investigated.
Highlights
Onion is believed to originate from Asia but cultivated in most of the countries around the world [1]
In spite of high production output of onion in Nigeria coupled with its nutritional benefits, it has a short postharvest life resulting in high losses [6]
During the course of storage, the onions exhibited an oscillating trend in their moisture content changes at 70-95% relative humidity
Summary
Onion is believed to originate from Asia but cultivated in most of the countries around the world [1]. In spite of high production output of onion in Nigeria coupled with its nutritional benefits, it has a short postharvest life resulting in high losses [6]. It has been estimated that the post-harvest losses of onion bulbs in the developing countries could be as high as 20-95% annually [7]. Postharvest losses could have serious economic impacts such as direct financial losses on the part of the growers and marketers. It indicates a waste of productive agricultural resources such as land, water, labour, managerial skills and other inputs that have been channelled towards the production of the crop. Postharvest losses of food crops have been faulted as a major cause of food
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