Effect of postharvest treatments on the shelf life of two mango cultivars

Abstract

Mango is one of the numerous delicious seasonal fruits that are cultivated in Nigeria. It is also a good source of income for farmers that are involved in its cultivation. It is therefore important to have good information about the preservation of this fruit for maximum profit. To achieve this, four levels of treatment that could affect the shelf life were applied to matured but not yet ripe mango fruits. Four storage properties were also used to assess the shelf life of the mango fruit. Data on fruit weight were collected at three days intervals in a space of nine days for two mango varieties, Keitt and Palmer. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), was carried out using fruit weight as the dependent variable modeled against three independent variables namely: treatment, cultivar and initial fruit weight. The initial weight of the mango fruit before applying the treatments was used as our covariate. Bar charts showing the frequencies and percentages of the storage variables comparing the two cultivars were also plotted. The results revealed that the treatments had a significant effect (p = 0.001) on the fruit weight of the mangoes and the storage variables were important in determining the shelf life of mango with respect to the two varieties. It was observed that the Keitt cultivar has a better shelf life than the Palmer. The study recommended that for a longer shelf life of mango, the treatment of dipping in hot water at 550C should be put into consideration by farmers in Nigeria and that ANCOVA statistical method could be a good model for predicting the storage life of other fruits.