EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT STAGES OF MATURITY AND POSTHARVEST TREATMENTS ON THE EXTENSION OF SHELF LIFE AND QUALITY OF BANANA

1 Department of Horticulture, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh 2 Agronomy Division, Agricultural Research Station, BARI, Rajbari, Dinajpur, Bangladesh ABSTRACT. An experiment was carried out in the Laboratories of the Departments of Horticulture and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, during the period from 23 April to 10 May 2015. The two factors experiment was conducted for extension of shelf life and quality of banana under different postharvest treatments. The first factor was stages of maturity which had three maturity stages, viz.: 1) hard green (S1), 2) pale green (S2) and optimum maturity stage (S3). The second factor was postharvest treatments, which had five treatments, viz.: 1) control (room temperature), 2) keeping fruits in perforated plastic bag, 3) keeping fruits in perforated plastic bag containing KMnO4, 4) fruits treated with hot water for 5 min at 50°C and then kept in plastic bag containing KMnO4, and 5) fruits precooling for 30 min at 5°C and then kept in plastic bag containing KMnO4. The pulp to peel ratio, total soluble solids, total sugar, reducing sugar, titratable acidity, were greater when fruits were harvested at optimum maturity stage than hard green stage. Total soluble solids, total sugar, reducing sugar were increased with storage duration, but increasing trend was slower when fruits were pre-cooling at 5°C for 30 min and kept in plastic bag containing KMnO4. The longest shelf life of banana fruits (19 days) was observed when hard green stages fruits pre-cooling at 5°C for 30 min and kept in plastic bag containing KMnO4 and the minimum shelf life (5.87 days) was observed in the combination of optimum maturity stage + control. So, it may be concluded that precooling for 30 min at 5°C and then kept in plastic bag containing KMnO4 treatment should be used for extending shelf life and quality of banana.