Fruit Deterioration Research Articles

Effect of organic fertilization with Moringa oleifera seeds cake and compost on storability of Valencia orange fruits

This study was carried out during two successive seasons 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 at the experimental research station of National Research Centre at Nubaria, El Behera governorate, Egypt. The work aimed to test the effect of moringa seeds cake and compost on Valencia orange (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck) fruit quality during cold storage. Treatments included; moringa seed cake 100% (3 tons/fed), compost 100% (3 tons/fed), 1 moringa seed cake: 1 compost, 1 moringa seed cake: 2 compost, 2 moringa seed cake: 1 compost and control without moringa seed cake or compost. Results showed that, application of Valencia orange trees by moringa seeds cake at 100% or in combination with compost at 2:1 ratio significantly improved fruit quality at the harvest. In addition, these treatments significantly reduced weight loss percentage and firmness deterioration of fruits during storage. Moreover, delayed the changes of fruit weight loss percentage, color values (L* and h°), firmness, juice percentage, TSS: TA ratio, ascorbic acid and carotene content. Therefore, it could be recommended that fertilizing with moringa seeds cake as a natural organic fertilizer source for substitution of some chemical fertilizers, besides its positive role in improving the fruit quality at the harvest and during storage period.

Preservation of strawberry fruit with an Aloe vera gel and basil ( Ocimum basilicum ) essential oil coating at ambient temperature

Strawberry deterioration accelerates after harvesting when the fruit are exposed at ambient temperature. Therefore, it is imperative to utilize efficient methods to mitigate the deterioration of fruit at ambient temperature. In the current study, harvested strawberries were coated with Aloe vera gel either alone or mixed with essential oil from basil plant. Coated strawberries were stored at ambient temperature (20°C) for 7 days and successfully retained their postharvest quality during storage. Scanning electron microscopy was used to examine the fracture morphology of coated and uncoated fruits. Application of coatings, specially the combination of Aloe vera with basil oil, reduced weight loss, respiration rate, degradation of vitamin C, and color change. Additionally, fungal growth was intensively prevented at room temperature. Finally, sensory analyses revealed positive results for the coatings on visual aspect. The results demonstrated that application of Aloe vera–basil oil complex coating is an effective method to preserve the postharvest quality and extend shelf life of strawberry fruit at room temperature. Novelty impact statement Combination of Aloe vera gel coating and basil oil preserved postharvest quality of strawberry fruit at ambient temperature. Aloe vera gel coating enriched with basil oil reduced fungal growth in in vitro and in vivo conditions at ambient temperature. Addition of basil oil to Aloe vera gel coating improved the efficacy of treatment at ambient temperature.

Effects of salicylic acid treatment on fruit quality and wax composition of blueberry (Vaccinium virgatum Ait)

The cuticular wax layer in fruit is a hydrophobic barrier which protects fruit from biotic and abiotic stress. The cuticular wax also affect fruit quality. This paper investigated the effects of salicylic acid on fruit quality and the cuticular wax in blueberry fruit during storage at room temperature (25 °C). ‘Powderblue’ blueberries (Vaccinium virgatum Ait) were treated with 1.0 mmol L-1 salicylic acid. The composition of cuticular wax layer and structure of epicuticular wax layer were analyzed at 4 d intervals during storage. Salicylic acid could efficiently delay the reduction of total wax content and affected the proportions of its constituents, including triterpenoids, esters, sterols, fatty acids, alcohols and alkanes. Our results also showed that there was no significant difference on the structure of epicuticular wax in salicylic acid treated fruits compared with that of the control. Salicylic acid delayed deterioration of blueberry fruit and enhanced its resistance to disease during storage.

Use of Centella asiatica extract in reducing microbial contamination and browning effect in fresh cut fruits and vegetables during storage: A potential alternative of synthetic preservatives

The study was focused on the effectiveness of Centella asiatica extract in microbial reduction and retarding browning formation of the samples obtained from fresh-cut fruits and vegetables (FCFV) during room temperature displayed (RTD) and chilled storage (CS). The microbial and color analyses were done in hour-basis (room temperature displayed) and daily basis (chilled storage). Candida albicans (6.77 log CFU/mL), Bacillus cereus (6.34 log CFU/mL), Escherichia coli O157:H7 (6.46 log CFU/mL) and Aspergillus niger (5.34 log CFU/mL) were specifically inoculated in apple, potato, lettuce, and pineapple, respectively. In room temperature displayed samples, the population of survival microorganisms ranged from 4.44 to 6.90 log CFU/g. In chilled stored samples, only A. niger was survived in chilled pineapple (3.00 log CFU/g) when storage end. Browning indexes in room temperature displayed and chilled stored samples ranged from 8.06 to 9.26 and 5.00 to 12.68, respectively. In short, low temperature and sufficient extract-treated periods may effectively inhibit microbial growth and browning index to prevent quality deterioration of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables.

Classification Learning of Latent Bruise Damage to Apples Using Shortwave Infrared Hyperspectral Imaging.

Bruise damage is a very commonly occurring defect in apple fruit which facilitates disease occurrence and spread, leads to fruit deterioration and can greatly contribute to postharvest loss. The detection of bruises at their earliest stage of development can be advantageous for screening purposes. An experiment to induce soft bruises in Golden Delicious apples was conducted by applying impact energy at different levels, which allowed to investigate the detectability of bruises at their latent stage. The existence of bruises that were rather invisible to the naked eye and to a digital camera was proven by reconstruction of hyperspectral images of bruised apples, based on effective wavelengths and data dimensionality reduced hyperspectrograms. Machine learning classifiers, namely ensemble subspace discriminant (ESD), k-nearest neighbors (KNN), support vector machine (SVM) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) were used to build models for detecting bruises at their latent stage, to study the influence of time after bruise occurrence on detection performance and to model quantitative aspects of bruises (severity), spanning from latent to visible bruises. Over all classifiers, detection models had a higher performance than quantitative ones. Given its highest speed in prediction and high classification performance, SVM was rated most recommendable for detection tasks. However, ESD models had the highest classification accuracy in quantitative (>85%) models and were found to be relatively better suited for such a multiple category classification problem than the rest.

CsMYB96 enhances citrus fruit resistance against fungal pathogen by activating salicylic acid biosynthesis and facilitating defense metabolite accumulation

Citrus fruit are generally confronted with various fungal diseases that cause fruit deterioration and economic loss. Salicylic acid (SA), a plant hormone, is an important signal molecule required for stimulating the disease resistance of plants. However, there has been limited information about the molecular mechanism of SA biosynthesis involving biotic stress response in citrus fruit. In the present study, an R2R3 MYB transcription factor (CsMYB96) was identified to mediate SA signaling in response to fungal diseases. The transient overexpression assay revealed that CsMYB96 contributed to the strong tolerance of citrus fruit to Penicillium italicum along with an increase in SA content; meanwhile, CsMYB96 conferred resistance to Botrytis cinerea in Arabidopsis plants. Further metabolomic profiling of stable transgenic Arabidopsis revealed that CsMYB96 participated in the regulation of various metabolism pathways and enhanced the accumulation of phenolic acids. RNA-seq analysis confirmed that overexpression of CsMYB96 activated the expression of genes involved in plant–pathogen interaction, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and SA signaling. Besides, CsMBY96 directly activated the transcription of calmodulin binding protein 60g (CsCBP60g), a predominant transcription factor required for the activation of SA signaling. In summary, our results reveal that CsMYB96 promotes SA biosynthesis and the accumulation of defense metabolites to enhance the fungal pathogen resistance of citrus fruit and Arabidopsis and provide new insights into the regulation of disease response.

Assessment of the Physicochemical and Nutritional Parameters of Pineapple Fruits (<i>Ananas comosus</i> L.) and Post-harvest Bioconservation Test

Pineapple (Ananas comosus (L)) is a monocotyledon, herbaceous, of the Bromeliad family. Cote d’Ivoire is the leading supplier of fresh pineapple to the European market. For reasons of sanitary quality and also because of the deterioration under the action of several factors of the marketable quality of the fruits, pineapple suffers a slump in the European market. To deal with the problem of fruit deterioration under the action of microorganisms, phytosanitary products are used. However, these foods present risks for consumers and may be responsible for public health problems. The objective of the present study is to reduce postharvest losses of pineapple fruit due to fungal contaminants using bacterial biopesticides such as Bacillus subtilis GA1, Pseudomonas fluorescens F19 and Pseudomonas fluorescens CI. Physicochemical analyzes were carried out on 200 samples composed of healthy pineapple fruits in order to determine the nutritional value of these fruits and to carry out conservation tests using the biomass and the supernatant of these 3 biopesticides. The physico-chemical analysis of the fresh pineapple fruits showed high humidity levels (83.23 to 85.5%), an acidic pH (3.79 to 3.88), levels of reducing sugars and total sugars of the order of 20.70 to 26.79 g / 100g and 59.42 to 62.32 g / 100g favourable to fungal growth. The conservation achieved made it possible to extend the shelf life of the fruits over fourteen (14) days for all the biopesticides against seven (7) days for the control. This study contributed to the development of biopesticides for post-harvest conservation of fruits in Cote d'Ivoire.

English

This study was carried out to determine the effect of beeswax coating and cold storage condition on the shelf life of nectarine fruit. A total of 240 nectarine fruits were collected and divided into six treatments, each with 40 fruits. The treatments consisted of coated fruits stored at  6°C (T1), coated fruits stored at 1°C (T2), coated fruits stored at ambient temperature (T3), uncoated fruits stored at 6°C (T4), uncoated fruits stored at 1°C (T5) and uncoated fruits  stored at ambient temperature (T6). Physico-chemical data and sensory attributes were taken at five days interval. The results showed that there was a significant difference between treatments (p≤ 0.05) for both physico-chemical properties and sensory attributes during the storage time (50 days). The result showed that the highest percentage of titratable acidity (1.45± 0.06) and total soluble solids (15.32±0.91°Brix) as well as highest mean scores of sensory parameters such as flavor (4.23±0.06), sourness (4.12±0.07), appearance (4.49±0.05), taste (4.27±0.06), texture (4.19±0.07) and overall acceptability (4.25±0.05) were recorded for coated nectarine fruits stored at 6°C followed by coating and storage at 1°C. On the other hand, the highest weight loss percentage (25.27±3.67) and pH value (4.29±0.16) and the lowest mean scores values for sensory evaluation were recorded for uncoated fruits stored at ambient temperature (22°C). The shelf life of beeswax coated fruit stored at cold storage was extended by 50 days following the deterioration of uncoated fruit stored at ambient temperature after three days. Therefore, nectarine fruits coated with beeswax and stored at temperatures of 1 and 6°C had prolonged shelf life without affecting its nutritional quality.   Key words:  Attributes, bee, coating, nectarine, physico-chemical, properties, sensory, wax.

Molecular cloning and expression analysis of hydrogen peroxide sensors under H2O2 and ROS inhibitor treatment in ‘Kyoho’ grape berry

Hydrogen peroxide is an important factor involved in the senescence and quality deterioration of postharvest fruit. However, few studies have examined hydrogen peroxide sensors and their expression patterns in grape. Here, postharvest grape berries were treated with H2O2 and the ROS inhibitor hypotaurine (HT). HT reduced the H2O2 content by increasing ROS-scavenging enzyme activity, whereas H2O2 accelerated senescence. Four hydrogen peroxide sensors (VvHPCA1, 2, 3, and 4) were identified and isolated from the grape genome. Sequence analysis indicated that VvHPCAs shared a conserved structure, including the LRR-RK and hydrogen peroxide (HP) domains, with other homologous hydrogen peroxide sensor genes. Furthermore, the expression patterns of the four VvHPCAs were investigated under H2O2 and HT treatment in grape. The expression levels of the four VvHPCAs were lower in grape berries treated with HT than in grape berries treated with H2O2 or water treatment (Control) in at least one of the sampling points during storage. VvHPCAs are cytomembrane proteins with stress-responsive cis-acting elements in their promoters, indicating that these four identified VvHPCAs might function as hydrogen peroxide sensors in grape and regulate hydrogen peroxide signaling and metabolism. Thus, VvHPCAs are capable of responding to postharvest ROS stress. These findings provided new insight into the function of these four VvHPCAs, which are potential candidate genes involved in regulating ROS stress in grape.

Fungi Diversity on Some Fruits and Biological Control using Two Plants Extracts

Fruits play an essential role in human nutrition by contributing the necessary growth factors like essential minerals and vitamins in human daily diet maintaining a good and normal health. But rot diseases caused by fungi cause severe losses of agricultural and horticultural crops every year. This work aimed to study fungi diversity on some fruits and carry out biological control using two plant extracts. A total of 17 infected fruit samples were collected from two local markets, small pieces of infected parts were inoculated on prepared plates of Potato Dextrose Agar. Incubation was done for 7 days and pure cultures were made, and pure isolated fungi were identified according to the recommended references. Ethanolic leaf extracts of Ocimum gratissimum and Moringa oleifera were evaluated for in vitro antifungal activities on Aspergillus and Fusarium species isolated from spoilt tomatoes and banana using the Agar Dilution Method. Eleven different fungi species comprising nine genera were isolated from the 17 fruits collected from the Nkwen and main markets of Bamenda. The fungi were identified as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Aspergillus niger, Penicillium digitatum, Mucor sp, Fusarium sp, Mucor racemosus, Alternaria alternata, Colletotrichum sp, Nodulisporium sp, Fusarium oxysporum and Aspergillus flavus. There was some diversity in isolation frequency of the fungi from the fruits. Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Fusarium were the most common genera that colonized the fruits, with Aspergillus sp. found to be the most dominant fungi responsible for extensive damage of fruits. Ocimum gratissimum and Moringa oleifera leaf extracts had inhibitory activities on the test fungi. The diversity of the fungi identified in this study could be regarded as the most common causes of post-harvest deterioration of fruits. The findings of this study bring further evidence that Moringa oleifera and Ocimum gratissimum leaves extracts have the potential of becoming powerful and safe alternative means of fungi control on fruits instead of the harmful, expensive, environmentally unfriendly chemical fungicides.

Edible Coatings in Extending the Shelf Life of Fruits: A Review

Post-harvest losses of fruits are a matter of concern for all those nations whose economy is based on horticulture. Fruits face tremendous loss due to old-fashioned preservation practice and ignorance about the preservation strategies. Consumers around the world demand for food of high-quality, without chemical preservatives and an extended shelf life. New technological advances in edible coatings for food may hold promise in extending shelf life, reducing packaging layers, meeting food safety and quality requirements. Among various coatings, edible coatings have been proven one of the best biologically safe preservative coatings for different types of foods because of its film-forming properties, antimicrobial actions, bio degradability and biochemical properties. It acts as a natural barrier to moisture and oxygen, which are the main agents of deterioration of fruits and vegetables. Edible coatings have the ability to prolong shelf life of the fruits by minimizing the rate of respiration and maintaining quality attributes. It has antifungal and antibacterial properties which provide a defensive barrier against microbial contamination. The present review describes about the different edible coatings and their potential application for enhancing the postharvest life and quality of different types of fruits.

Biocontrol of Post-harvest Fungal Diseases of Pineapple (<i>Ananas comosus </i>L.) Using Bacterial Biopesticides

Pineapple (Ananas comosus L.) is a monocotyledon, herbaceous, of the Bromeliad family. Cote d’Ivoire is the leading supplier of fresh pineapple to the European market. For reasons of sanitary quality and also due to the deterioration under the action of several factors of the marketable quality of the fruits, pineapple suffers a slump in the European market. To deal with the problem linked to the deterioration of fruits under the action of microorganisms, phytosanitary products are used. However, these foods present risks for consumers and may be responsible for public health problems. The objective of the present study is to reduce post-harvest losses of pineapple fruit due to fungal contaminants using bacterial biopesticides such as Bacillus subtilis GA1, Pseudomonas fluorescens F19 and Pseudomonas fluorescens CI. To this end, isolations followed by identification by PCR-ITS-RFLP of the fungal strains carried out on 200 samples composed of healthy and altered pineapple fruits in order to determine the main fungal strains responsible for their alteration have been made. The antifungal activity of biopesticides has been tested in vitro and in vivo to assess the potential for inhibition against isolated fungal strains. The results indicate that 5 fungal genera namely Rhizopus, Geotrichum, Neurospora, Candida and Aspergillus were isolated. Antagonist tests using all three biopesticides reduced spoilage. This study contributed to the development of biopesticides in the fight against fruit spoilage fungi in Cote d'Ivoire.

Quality Deterioration of Postharvest Fruits and Vegetables in Developing Country Pakistan: A Mini Overview

Post-harvest losses relate to the degradation in the quantity and quality of the crop’s products from harvesting to consumer usage. In many developing countries, like Pakistan, the post-harvest loss is a problem of food security and is of concern to everyone. Inappropriate handling of agricultural products after harvest may cause quality and quantity losses. It also accounts for the increasing prices of agricultural products in Pakistan. The total production of vegetables and fruits in Pakistan is nearly 13.764 million tons, and it is estimated that 35% to 40% of vegetables and fruits were wasted after harvesting. Severe losses and deterioration of vegetables and fruits occurred mainly during harvesting, along with distribution, transportation, and storage. The important reasons for post-harvest losses include mechanical damage, poor handling, microorganisms (bacteria, fungi), unawareness and lack of modern technologies, time management, insects, and mites. Reduction of post-harvest losses is the main goal of the agricultural sector. Training and educational initiatives could be one of the best strategies for minimizing post-harvest losses. The main objective of this review is, to explain the major production, quality deteriorations of vegetables and fruits, and the causes of post-harvest losses in Pakistan. It can be applied as a positive indication because all bodies involved will strive to implement efficient and effective approaches and policies to address the existing problems.

Ultrasound-assisted osmotic dehydration of litchi: effect of pretreatment on mass transfer and quality attributes during frozen storage

Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.), fruits being the perishable and high amount of moisture content, are very susceptible to fruit deterioration and reduced shelf life. A novel method of ultrasound-assisted osmotic dehydration can improve fruit quality by increasing mass transfer rate and maintaining texture characteristics. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of ultrasound-assisted osmotic dehydration on the mass transfer parameters, physicochemical and microbiological qualities of litchi fruits during frozen periods. For this purpose, litchi fruits were subjected to ultrasound-assisted osmotic dehydration as a pretreatment prior to the freezing step. The pretreatment consisted of three processing conditions: the use of osmotic dehydration at 50% (w/w) of sucrose (OD); ultrasound in an osmotic solution for 10 min before osmotic dehydration (US10 + OD); and ultrasound in an osmotic solution for 15 min before osmotic dehydration (US15 + OD). All samples were frozen and stored at − 18 °C. The obtained results indicated that ultrasound pretreatment effectively increases water loss (28.73 ± 3.25%) and solid gain (45.44 ± 6.85%) levels of litchi fruit. During the frozen storage for 90 days, the use of ultrasound, remarkably, US10 + OD treatment reduced the moisture content (76.46 ± 1.38%), drip loss (15.93 ± 1.01%), and microbial load (2.58 ± 0.06 log CFU/g) of the frozen litchi while increasing the firmness (1.46 ± 0.24 N), and a total soluble solid (17.50 ± 0.87 oBrix) amount of the samples in comparison to their controls (p < 0.05). Therefore, these results demonstrated that ultrasound-assisted osmotic dehydration could significantly improve the quality of litchi fruit in freezing and thawing processes.

Growth, respiration and physicochemical changes during the maturation of cacao fruits.

Cacao is important for the economy of many countries in the humid tropics. Its quality is affected when fruits are not collected at the optimal harvest point. The aim of this study was to obtain maturity indices for producers to facilitate the timely harvest and improve the development of fermentation and the sensorial quality of cacao. The growth and respiration processes, and the physicochemical changes during the maturation of three cacao genotypes were determined. Physiological follow-ups measuring fruit length and diameter were performed from 30 days after anthesis to fruit deterioration in the tree. Growth equations were obtained, establishing four maturity stages based on days after anthesis, and fruit length and diameter. Nineteen descriptors were used for the characterization, and through Pearson's correlation and principal component analysis (PCA), five descriptors were identified as representative of the maturity stages of the cacao fruit. PCA results and respiration measurements established that stage 3 presented the highest substrate availability for obtaining good fermentation and quality cacao. This stage showed values between 124 and 197 days after anthesis with lengths between 167.7 and 249.73 mm, and diameters between 64.4 and 95.8 mm, according to the locality. Three growth phases of the cacao fruits were established considering days after anthesis. Both the edaphoclimatic conditions and the cacao genotype characteristics influenced this determination. Stage 3 of fruit maturation shows the best physicochemical conditions for good fermentation. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.

Up-regulated glycolysis, TCA, fermentation and energy metabolism promoted the sugar receding in ‘Shixia’ longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour.) pulp

Sugar receding, a drastic decrease of total soluble solid (TSS) in pulp, leads to decreased sweetness and deterioration of longan fruits during on-tree preservation. Although soluble acid invertases were proved as key factors regulating sugar receding, systematic analysis of the other pathways regulating this process was still lacked. Significant decreased TSS (by 40.61%) and sucrose (by 66.71%) but slight decreased fructose and glucose during 95–127 days after flowering (DAF) indicated a rapid conversion of sucrose to hexose and consumption of hexose in ‘Shixia’ longan pulp. TMT-labeled proteomic analysis of longan pulp at 95, 110 and 127 DAF identified 575 proteins differently expressed (≧1.2-fold or ≦0.833-fold) in at least two stages (BDEPs). GO annotation of the BDEPs showed that the enriched biological processes terms were: response to inorganic substance, cadmium ion, stimulus and chemical, catabolic processes of carbohydrate, glucose, monosaccharide and hexose, and monosaccharide metabolic process. Mapman visualization of the BDEPs indicated that down-regulation of the key proteins involved in starch synthesis & degradation (ie. Starch phosphorylase L & isoamylase), sucrose synthesis (ie. sucrose-phosphate synthase & sucrose-6-phosphatase) and cytoplasmic sucrose degradation (ie. neutral invertase, sucrose synthase) but up-regulation of the enzymes for vacuolar sucrose degradation (soluble acid invertase) and most of the proteins involved in the cytosolic and plastidial glycolysis (Calvin cycle), fermentation, TCA, and energy metabolism promoted the consumption of hexose. Taken together, the up-regulated glycolysis, fermentation, TCA and energy metabolism might promote sucrose decomposition and thus sugar receding of longan pulp.

Green synthesis of nanosilver coating on paper for ripening delay of fruits under visible light

Active packaging containing photocatalyst is generally used to solve the issues of loss and quality deterioration of fresh fruits. However, only ultraviolet (UV) light can activate these photo-catalysts in ethylene photo-degradation. To overcome this limitation, green synthesized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) that inhibits ethylene gas production under visible light has been developed. In this study, spent green tea was mixed with deionized water at various ratios ranging from liquid to solid to obtain spent green tea extract (ex-SGT) having different concentrations used for synthesis of AgNPs. The results indicated that a good distribution of particles with a bandgap energy of 2.17 eV which was in the visible region for ethylene photo-degradation was successfully obtained with the synthesized AgNPs-60 (ex-SGT at the ratio of 60:1). The coated paper possessed an antibacterial activity and decreased the ethylene concentration in mango’s packaging. Based on the finding in this work, it appears that the coated paper could have potential to be used for novel packaging of fruits to delay their ripening so that their freshness can be maintained.

Research progress in the application of lysozyme in food and medicine field

As an important physiological active factor in the body, lysozyme has a variety of active functions, such as bacteriostasis, antivirus and immunity enhancement. This paper describes in detail the application of lysozyme in food processing fields such as storing meats, prevention of deterioration of alcoholic drinks, fruits and vegetables, and in the treatment of microbial infectious diseases, cancer, virus infection and other medical fields. At the same time, the application prospect of lysozyme combined with new technologies such as chemical modification, immobilization and nanomaterials to form composite antibacterial materials was pointed out.

A study of commonly occurring fungal diseases on stored tomatoes of Kathmandu Valley

Fungal pathogens destruct the quality and quantity of tomato production and cause health hazards to the consumers as well as economic loss to the traders. This study was carried out to identify some fungal diseases associated with post-harvest deterioration of stored tomato fruits in three vegetable markets of Lagankhel, Balkhu and Kalimati of Kathmandu Valley. The samples were collected from selected sites in three separate trials and cultured in Potato Dextrose Agar. During investigation, 16 species belonging to 15 genera of fungi were identified. They were Alternaria alternata, A. solani, Aspergillus niger, Botrytis cinerea, Cladosporium fulvum, Colletotrichum truncatum, Curvularia tetramera, Fusarium oxysporum, Geotrichum candidum, Mucor mucedo, Penicillium notatum, Phytophthora infestans, Phoma exigua, Pullularia pullulans, Pythium aphanidermatum and Rhizopus stolonifer. These were responsible for 15 different diseases of Alternaria fruit rot, Anthracnose, Black mold rot, Botrytis Bunch Rot, Damping off/ fruit rot, Drechslera mold, Fusarium rot, Mucor rot, Penicillium rot, Phoma blight, Phytophthora rot, Rhizopus rot, Russet, Scab and Sour rot. The presence of these fungi and corresponding rot diseases on stored tomato indicate the need for management of fungi, farm sanitation and improved market in order to prevent field-to-storage transmission of pathogens.

Moulds and Mycotoxins Associated with Cashew Fruits (Anacardium Occidentalel.) Deterioration

A survey was carried out on moulds and mycotoxins associated with deterioration of the cashew fruits in Keffi, Nasarawa State. The disease survey covered four locations in Keffi. The locations include AngwanLambu, G.R.A, DadinKowa and Cross-3. The four locations were visited four times and a total of 80 cashew fruits were collected and sampled. Forty-five (45) fruits were infected with different fungal diseases while thirty-five (35) were free from fungal infection. The fungal species isolated and identified were Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus oryzae, Aspergillusversicolor and Rhizomucorpusillus. Their percentages of occurrence were 46.7 %, 20.0 %, 13.3% respectively and are independent of the different locations. G.R.A has the highest percentage of occurrence (46.7 %) and Cross-3 has the least occurrence (13.3 %). Analysis of the nutritional contents of infected cashew fruits shows a reduction in the moisture content, crude protein, and fibre and carbohydrate level compared with the uninfected fruits. The relative humidity of the survey area was very high thereby predisposing the fruits to fungal growth and mycotoxin production. Aspergillus flavuswas the most virulent, while Aspergillusversi c olorwas the least virulent. The result showed the occurrence of Aflatoxins B1 in three of the sample fruits with their RF values; 0.51, 0.51, 0.51. Therefore, it is necessary to avert the situation in this are a by controlling factors which enhances the spread of the pathogens.