Ripening quality of banana cv. Amritasagor through application of different ripening agents

Abstract

Desirable ripened quality banana fruits are important for the consumer acceptability. Banana cv. Amritasagar was treated with different ripening agents like control (R1), RipestuffTM @ 42 mg/10 mL water (R2), RipestuffTM @ 84 mg/10 mL water (R3), Ethephone @ 200 ppm (R4) and Ethephone @ 400 ppm (R5); and storage durations were 24 h (H1), 48 h (H2), 72 h (H3), and 96 h (H4). The two factors experiment was conducted with complete randomized design with three replications. Fruits were placed in container (RFL). With the progress of storage duration quality parameters like weight loss (%), peel color, pulp to peel ratio, softness, total soluble solids (TSS), and pH were recorded. Fruits treated with R3 and R5 produced uniform yellow color and the highest softness at 96 h. Whereas banana fruits treated with R2 developed peel colour and softness a bit slower compared to other treatments; and untreated fruits (control) were hard, poor in color and quality, and were not suitable for consumption at 96 h. The highest TSS (%) were found at 72 h treated with R5 and at 96 h with R5 including R3, and R4 showed the mostly similar TSS (%). Thus, RipestuffTM @ 84 mg/10 mL water (R3) and ethephon @ 400 ppm (R5) can be used maintaining quality and ripening banana for better price of banana growers and traders through avail it at earlier marketing and reduced postharvest loss.