مطالعه آثار تيمارهاي آب گرم و پوشش پلي اتيلن بر روي عمر انبارماني و كيفيت ميوه انار(رقم ملس ساوه )

The Effects of Hot Water Treatment and in Polyethylene Bag Packaging on the Storage Life and Quality of Pomegranate(Cv: Malas- Saveh)

This research was carried out at the Dept. of Horticulture , Univ. of Tehran. Karaj to find out how the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of pomegranate fruit could be improved in cold storage. In the experiment the effects of hot water treatment as well as the use of polyethylene bags for packaging on the quality improvement of pomegranate fruit during cold storage were studied. For this purpose pomegranate fruits of Malas - Torsh cv. were harvested at fully ripen stage and treated with hot water (50 and 55°C for 1 to 2 minutes). Thereafter each fruit was warped up in a polyethylene bag of 0.01 and 0.04 mm in thickness and stored in cold storage room with 5ʹC and relative humidity of 85% for 3 months. The experiments were conducted using a completely randomized design of three replicates. Some characteristics like: weights loss, fruit seed weight percentage, fruit seed weight, total soluble solids (TSS), juice dried weight percentage, pH and titrable acidity (TA) as well as colour intensity were measured. Other characteristics such as fruit and seed appearance from the view point of marketability, taste, and percent fungi contamination were also examined. The results indicated that in polyethylene bag wrapping had a significant effect on preventing weight loss, improving the appearance as well as marketability of fruits during storage, while showing no effect on pH, TSS and fruit dry matter. Also it was observed that fruits treated in 50°C hot water showed significant improvement of quality while treatment with 55°C hot water failed to show such effects. In total, a combination of polyethylene bag packaging along with 50°C hot water treatment caused improvement in the general quality of stored fruit and decreased fungi infection.