Pre-harvest sprays of hexanal formulation for extending retention and shelf-life of mango (Mangifera indica L.) fruits

Abstract

Field experiments were conducted to study the response of mango (var. Alphonso and Banganapalli) to pre-harvest sprays of a nano-emulsion of hexanal (Enhanced Freshness Formulation) in extending retention and shelf-life of fruits. Hexanal, a naturally occurring plant derived compound is known to inhibit phospholipase-D and facilitates extension of shelf-life of fruits during storage. Pre-harvest sprays of EFF (1.6mM) on 30 and 15 days before harvest were done and the observations on fruit retention, incidence of post-harvest diseases and net fruit yield were recorded. After harvest, the fruits were kept under ambient (25±2°C; 70–75% RH) and cold (14±2°C; 85–90% RH) storage conditions and the physiological and biochemical parameters were measured regularly till the end of the shelf-life. The data clearly indicated that pre-harvest sprays of EFF significantly reduced the post-harvest diseases such as anthracnose, stem end rot and other infestations which minimized the post-harvest losses while increasing the net fruit yield by 4–5kg per tree. The sprayed trees retained the fruits in the tree by 3–4 weeks longer than control. Further, the fruits harvested from the sprayed trees remained fresh for a longer period of time under both ambient (24–25 days) and cold (36–40 days) storage conditions in comparison to their respective controls (16–18 days; 20–22 days). The physiological loss in weight was registered lower while other quality attributes such as firmness, total sugars, acidity of treated fruits were higher than their respective controls regardless of storage conditions. Overall, the results suggested that pre-harvest sprays of EFF assisted in retention fruits for 3–4 weeks longer in the orchard itself besides extending shelf-life under storage conditions without the loss of quality of fruits.