Vol. 12, Issue 9 (2023)

Author(s):
Apsara BU, M Madhavi, P Vinaya Kumar Reddy, P Subbaramamma and V Shekhar

Abstract:
The present investigation, “Influence of preharvest elicitors sprays on quality attributes and shelf life of papaya (Carica Papaya L.) cv. Red Lady was carried out at Department of Fruit Science, Dr. YSRHU-College of Horticulture, Venkataramannagudem, West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh during 2022-23. The experiment was laid out in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with five treatments and each treatment replicated thrice. Four different preharvest elicitors spray viz., Brassinosteroid @ 0.1%, Salicylic acid @ 300 ppm, Chitosan @ 1.5%, Benzyl Adenine @ 50 ppm and control (no sprays). The preharvest elicitors sprays were given twice (one month and 15 days before harvest) when the fruits are in immature stage. The performance of preharvest elicitors sprays on quality and shelf life of papaya fruits was studied at 3 days intervals. The results revealed that fruits harvested from the plants sprayed with preharvest elicitors salicylic acid @ 300 ppm had showed significant improvement in quality attributes viz., less reduction in physiological loss in weight (8.35%), least percent of fruit spoilage (40.00%), maximum in fruit firmness (9.90 kg cm^-2), TSS (11.40 °Brix), total sugars (9.89%), reducing sugars (5.94%), non-reducing sugars (3.90%), β-carotene content (1.06 mg 100 g^-1), titrable acidity (0.285%), ascorbic acid (75.30 mg 100 g^-1), total antioxidants (69.02% DPPH activity), catalase (0.84 units/mg protein/min) and peroxidase activities (0.81 units/mg protein/min) and shelf life (10.68d) of papaya fruit as compared to other treatments at 9^th day of storage.