ISSN 2348-313X (Print) International Journal of Life Sciences Research ISSN 2348-3148 (online) Vol. 9, Issue 3, pp: (48-55), Month: July - September 2021, Available at: www.researchpublish.com
The Study of Wound Response on a Lesion of Tomato Fruits during Storage and Shelf Life – Impact of Postharvest Treatments Nasiru Yahaya Ahmed1 and Haruna Ibrahim2 1
Department of Agricultural and Bio Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering Technology. Federal Polytechnic Bali, Taraba State. 2
Department of Science Laboratory Technology, School of Science and Technology. Federal Polytechnic Bali, Taraba State. Corresponding author: nasiryahyaahmed@yahoo.com, +2347035055015
Abstract: This research work aimed at the investigating wound response on a lesion of tomato fruits during storage and shelf life. The research determine the most effective post-harvest treatment on tomato fruits subjected to wounding and infected with Grey Mould (Botrytis cinerea). The trial was conducted in series of four experiments, a single low and high concentrations, interaction of 30 mM Ca with low and high concentrations. Tomatoes treated with 10% ethanol solutions were included as controls in each experiment. The fruits were inoculated with Botrytis cinerea spores 10 minutes after the treatments and incubated at 10 1 and 85-90% RH for 14days in every successions. The result revealed that among the single treatments 30 mM SA and 30 mM Ca had the greater inhibition effect of Botrytis cinerea on the tomato fruits considering their mean lesion diameter at (d14). However, the combination of 30 mM SA and 30 mM Ca resulted to a significant treatment that inhibit the effect of the fungus. Hence this research suggests a combination of 30 mM SA with 30 mM Ca in suppressing the spread of Botrytis cinerea in tomato fruits. From the high concentration treatment the result show that the levels of different treatment are associated with the lesion size of the disease spread, because the P-value (0.0357) is the significant level of (0.05), hence the different treatments are statistically significant. The incubation days is also associated with the lesion size diameter at P-value (0.0411). Equally there is significant difference statistically at different measurement days of incubation in respect to lesion size diameter. Keywords: Tomato Fruit, Botrytis Cineria, Calcium Chloride, Salicylic Acid.
I. INTRODUCTION Tomatoes are highly perishable commodity with short shelf-life and vulnerable to fungal infection attributes to their low pH, high moisture content and nutrient composition, thus, affecting its quality and nutritional value hence make the fruit unfit for consumption [17]. The world post-harvest losses of the fresh fruits were estimated between 30 – 40% by [1] and 25 – 40% by [17]. Pre-harvest and post-harvest disease, improper post-harvest handling and other conditions are some of the factors that highly affect the wholesomeness of the fresh tomato fruits, as well as storage and shipping conditions [12], other principal causes of post-harvest losses and poor quality include bruising, over-ripening at harvest, water losses, chilling injury, compositional changes, and decay [5]. Bacteria and fungi are the main classes of plant pathogens that cause decay and responsible for the progressive deterioration of tomato, but fungi are more responsible than bacteria [4]. Grey Mould caused by Botrytis cinerea is a common and often serious fungal post-harvest disease of tomato plant, the pathogen has a wide host range and can be spread by wind, its survive on plant debris and soil, it usually requires a wound or dead tissue to begin its infection [6] [13]. The fungal agent affects stems, leaves, flowers and fruits of the plant either by direct penetration or through wounding caused by cultivation practices [5]. Cold and high humid conditions favour the
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