Abstract
Strawberry is highly nutritious and economically important fruit crop having short shelf life. Fruit has sensitivity to fungal
decay and due to fast metabolic activity heavy losses occur before reach to the consumers. Pre storage application of calcium
chloride (CaCl2) and salicylic acid (SA) is used as an alternative to synthetic fungicides for controlling decay problem and to
extend the shelf life of harvested fruits. The present study was conducted to standardize the doses of calcium chloride and
salicylic acid to extend the shelf life of strawberry fruit. Marketable strawberries were dipped in different concentrations of
CaCl2 (2, 4, 6 mM) and SA (3, 5, 7 mM) solutions for 10 minutes along with control (simple water) and stored at 4°C with
80-85% RH for 15 days. All fruit quality parameters were analyzed during 0, 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 days after storage. It was
observed that decay (%) significantly reduced in all treated fruits than fruits in control treatment. Maximum decay (39%) was
noted in control treatment while minimum decay percentages (1.5 and 2.3) were in medium doses of SA and CaCl2 (5mM
and 4mM), respectively. The physiochemical analysis showed that CaCl2 (6 mM) proved better for reducing weight loss of
strawberries where it was 3.3% while in control it was 9.3%. Maximum firmness (0.42 kg. cm-2
), vitamin C contents (43.90
mg 100 g-1
) and TPC (132.75 mg 100 g-1
) were also found from strawberries those were treated with 6 mM CaCl2 as
compared to control when analyzed after 15 days. However, minimum TSS (7.85ºBrix), maximum retaining of acid contents
(0.62%), total antioxidants (39.0% DPPH) and enzymatic activities were found with SA (5 mM) dipping application as
compared to other treatments. Consequently, it is concluded that pre storage treatment of SA @ 5 mM is recommended for
extending shelf life and for retaining maximum quality attributes of strawberry during 15 days of storage. Moreover CaCl2 (6
mM) also performed better to maintain the quality parameters up to 15 days but decay (%) was somewhat increased.
Sana Shahzad, Saeed Ahmad, Raheel Anwar, Rashid Ahmad. (2020) PRE-STORAGE APPLICATION OF CALCIUM CHLORIDE AND SALICYLIC ACID MAINTAIN THE QUALITY AND EXTEND THE SHELF LIFE OF STRAWBERRY, Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences, Volume 57, Issue 2.
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