EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT PLANT EXTRACTS ON THE EXTENSION OF SHELF LIFE OF BANANA

Different plant extracts were examined to reduce loss and extend shelf life of two different banana variety named Amritasagar and Meheresagar. The postharvest treatments included control, neem extract (1:1 and 1:2), garlic extract (1:1 and 1:2) and allamanda extract (1:1 and 1:2 at separately. The changes of colour, firmness, total weight loss, disease severity, disease incidence and shelf life of stored bananas were studied. During storage, colour, firmness, disease severity, disease incidence and total weight loss increased in all the treated and untreated bananas. At the 12th day of storage, the minimum weight loss (15.93%), disease severity 1.45%, disease incidence 35% in ‘Amritasagar’ bananas were treated with neem (1:2), garlic (1:2) and allamanda (1:2) extracts but the maximum weight loss (23.63%), disease severity (57.50%) and disease incidence (100%) were recorded in ‘Mehersagar’ bananas of the untreated control. The postharvest treatments showed highly significant variation in respect of shelf life. The longest shelf life (15.30 days) was found in ‘Amritasagar’ bananas treated with neem extract (1:2) and the shortest shelf life (9 days) in ‘Mehersagar’ bananas that were not subjected to any treatment.