Vol. 8, Issue 12, Part A (2024)

The current study was conducted in 2023 at the Department of Horticulture, VNMKV, Parbhani, with the aim of examining the impact of various post-harvest chemicals on the physio-chemical qualities and shelf life of banana cultivar Grand Naine in both ambient and refrigerated storage conditions. A Factorial Completely Randomised Design (FCRD) was used to set up the experiment. It involved two factors: storage conditions, which had two levels: ambient storage (S1), refrigerated storage (S2: 13 ⁰C ± 1 temp. and 85% RH), and chemical treatment, which had five levels: C1: GA3 @ 150 ppm, C2: benzyl adenine @ 50 ppm, C3: salicylic acid @ 2 mM, C4: hexanal @ 1%, and C5: KMS @ 1%. Ten treatment combinations were tested, each of which was conducted three times. Interaction effect of storage condition and chemical treatment on physico-chemical properties of fruit was found significant. Fruits stored under treatment combination S2C1 (Refrigerated Storage + GA3 @ 150 ppm) had the longest documented shelf life (33.89 days) while, S2C2 (Refrigerated Storage + BA @ 50 ppm) recorded maximum antioxidant activity along with progressing of storage period at every 4 days interval, post-harvest dipping of fruits in GA3 @ 150 ppm and stored in refrigerated condition (S2C1) significantly recorded minimum TSS, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars, total sugars, and maximum titratable acidity and starch content.