Chemical properties and shelf life of velvet apple germplasm

The study was undertaken to evaluate bio-chemical properties, shelf-life determination and expansion of ripe fruits of four velvet apple germplasm. The selected germplasm were local red variety, local yellow variety, PSTU Bilati gab-1 and PSTU Bilati gab-2. Ripe fruits were collected from Germplasm Center, Patuakhali Science and Technology University (PSTU) and different locations of Patuakhali district of Bangladesh. Results expressed that maximum TSS (13.93%), vitamin-C (3.68 mg/100g), non-reducing sugar (5.15%) and total sugar (7.95%) were recorded from PSTU Bilati gab-2, the highest TA (1.30%) was found in PSTU Bilati gab-1 but highest pulp pH (7.50) and TSS to TA ratio (11.11) were recorded from local yellow variety whereas highest reducing sugar (3.17%) was recorded from local red variety. The shelf life of ripe fruit varied from 3.25 – 4.75 days where the longest shelf life was obtained from PSTU Bilati gab-2 and the shortest shelf life was recorded in local red variety. But the storability was extended more than 27 days when stored in “Refrigerator” followed by “Non-perforated polybag (NPP)” (10 days), perforated polybag (8 days) and paper bag (6 days). The firmness of fruits were decreased gradually with days but the reduction was minimized when stored in different storage condition where more firmness hold in refrigerator treatment followed by NPP. Similarly, the weight loss was controlled in refrigerator followed by NPP treatment. The results of the experiments revealed that PSTU Bilati gab-2 provides superior chemical properties among the germplasm and ‘Refrigerator’ treatment exhibited best performance among other.