TY - BOOK AU - Manjunath J Shetty AU - Geetha Lekshmi, P R (Guide) TI - Postharvest handling studies for extending shelf life of rambutan (nephelium lappaceum L.) U1 - 631.56 PY - 2017/// CY - Vellayani PB - Department of Post Harvest Technology, College of Agriculture KW - Post Harvest Technology N1 - MSc N2 - The study entitled “Postharvest handling studies for extending shelf life of rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum L.)” was conducted in the Department of Post Harvest Technology, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, during 2015-17 with the objective to extend the shelf life of rambutan with minimum nutritional loss through postharvest handling practices. Good quality rambutan fruits of uniform size and maturity with red skin colour, collected from the homesteads of Thiruvananthapuram and Pathanamthitta districts were used for the study. The harvested fruits dipped in 1% wax formulations viz. KAU wax (bee wax), palm wax (carnauba wax) and paraffin wax were air dried and stored under room temperature (30±2oC; RH 80-85%) for standardizing the best wax formulation. Fruits coated with 1% paraffin wax had the lowest physiological loss in weight (PLW) (18.36%), retained highest total soluble solids (TSS) (18.46 oB), acidity (0.40%), vitamin C (22.05 mg/ 100g), total sugar (16.78%), reducing sugar (5.33%) and antioxidant activity (66.60%) with lowest browning score (3.43) and superior in general appearance, taste and flavour with minimum pulp browning at the end of shelf life. Hence 1% paraffin wax was selected for further pre-treatment studies. Harvested rambutan fruits subjected to various pre-treatments viz. 1% paraffin wax, sulphitation (350 ppm) and ozonization (2 ppm) were stored at room temperature. Ozonization at 2 ppm was adjudged as the best pre-treatment as it recorded the lowest PLW (20.24%), highest TSS (18.70 oB), acidity (0.51%), vitamin C (22.20 mg/ 100g), total sugar (15.58%), reducing sugar (5.74%), non reducing sugar (9.84%) and antioxidant activity (70.64%). The lowest mean score (4.10) for browning and highest for general appearance (4.83), taste, flavour and reduced pulp browning were also observed in fruits pre-treated with ozonization (2 ppm) and hence selected for pre-packaging and storage studies. Rambutan fruits subjected to 2 ppm ozonization for 5 minutes were pre-packaged in different packaging materials viz. ventilated low density polyethylene (LDPE), ventilated polypropylene (PP), polystyrene tray with cling film wrap and shrink wrap. The pre-packaged fruits were stored at room temperature (30±2 oC; RH 80-85%) and refrigerated condition (10±2 oC; RH 90-95%) till the end of shelf life. Pre-packaging of pre-treated rambutan in ventilated PP (100 guage) had discerned lowest PLW (3.23%), highest vitamin C (21.43 mg/ 100g), total sugar (15.70%) and antioxidant activity (66.34%) whereas TSS, pH, acidity, reducing and non reducing sugars were not affected by pre-packaging treatments after 8 days of storage at room temperature. Better physical quality with the lowest score for browning (2.86) and highest for general appearance (6.90), taste, flavour and least pulp browning were also perceived for fruits in ventilated PP (100 guage) stored under room temperature. Under refrigerated storage, ventilated PP was ideal as it registered the lowest PLW (3.38%) and pH (3.90) with highest acidity (0.44%), vitamin C (22.27 mg/ 100g), total sugar (15.45%) and antioxidant activity (64.23%) after 14 days of storage. Excellent physical quality with lowest score for browning (2.90) and the highest for general appearance (6.40), internal fruit quality viz. taste, flavour and lowest pulp browning were also noticed for fruits in ventilated PP after 14 days of storage. Rambutan fruits without any postharvest treatments had limited shelf life of only 3 days with diminished nutritional and organoleptic qualities. Ozonization of harvested rambutan fruits at 2 ppm for 5 minutes and prepackaging in ventilated polypropylene (100 guage) could extend the shelf life of fruits up to fourteen days when stored under refrigerated condition and eight days under room temperature storage with minimum nutritional loss UR - http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810140479 ER -