Effect of Some Postharvest Treatments on Quality and Storability of Date Palm fruits Zaghloul and Samany Cultivars

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Horticultural Crops Technology, National Research Centre, 33 El-Bohouth st. (former El-Tahrir st.) - Dokki – Giza – Egypt P.O. 12622

Abstract

This experiment was carried out during two successive seasons (2012 and 2013) in the postharvest laboratory of Agricultural Development System (ADS) project in Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Egypt on two date palm fruits cvs. Zaghloul and Samany harvested at full coloured stage (khalal) to investigate the efficiency of using some natural substances i.e. arabic gum at 10%, black cumin (Nigella sativa) oil at 1% as well as their combination besides untreated fruits as a control under cold storage on fruit quality of date palm fruits. The obtained results showed that, 10 % arabic gum + 1% black cumin oil and 1% black cumin oil succeeded in reducing weight loss and fruit decay percentages for Zaghloul date palm, while arabic gum at 10% and 10% arabic gum + 1% black cumin oil gave the lowest weight loss and fruit decay percentages in Samany date palm. However, the highest values of fruit firmness were scored by 10% arabic gum + 1% black cumin oil and black cumin oil at 1% for both cultivars.Coating date palm fruits with combination of arabic gum 10% + black cumin oil 1% or arabic gum10% only enhance of fruit chemical properties (total soluble solids and total sugar) However, While, there was no clear trend for treatments effect on fruit total acidity content for both cultivars under the study.

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