Effect of Organic Preservatives on Postharvest Shelf Life and Quality of Tomato Fruits during Storage

Effect of organic preservatives on postharvest shelf life and quality of tomato fruits during storage was carried out. Healthy tomato fruits of three varieties Roma, Riogrande and UTC were obtained from the experimental farm at breaker stage. They were coated with Moringa, Neem and bitterleaf powders and stored at room temperature. Variety 3 (V3) produced significantly higher beta carotene content (0.182) than variety 1 (V1) (0.135) and variety 2 (V2) (0.127) on days 1 and 17 (0.205), (0.153) and (0.124). V2 produced significantly higher beta carotene value on days 21 (0.191) and 25 (0.233). Bitterleaf produced significantly higher beta – carotene content on days 1 (0.209), 5 (0.259) and 25 (0.191). No significant difference in firmness was observed within the varieties across the days. Moringa produced the lowest firmness value (2.917) on day 5 while control gave the lowest firmness value on days 13 (2.349), 17 (2.006), 21(1.273) and 25 (0.326). The highest lycopene content among the varieties was produced by V2 on day 21 (0.055) and V3 (0.055). Bitterleaf generally gave higher lycopene value on days 1 (0.028), 13 (0.071), 21 (.0.59) and 25 (.0.59). Moringa produced significantly higher lycopene content on days 5(0.059) while Neem gave significantly higher lycopene on days 9 (0.041) and 17 (0.052). V3 gave higher marketability value on day 21 (7.525). While Neem gave the highest marketability value (8.322) and (6.422) respectively. Bitterleaf gave the highest pH value (6.461) on day 1followed by Moringa (6.614) and Neem (6.387). Control gave the highest pH value (6.798) and (5.356) but this was significantly higher than that produced by Neem. The shelf life of the treated tomato fruits ranged from days 1 -25 while the control ranged from 1- 21 days. V1 gave the significantly highest value of TSS (4.223), Neem gave the highest TSS values on days 5 (4.856), 9(4.856), 13(4.833), 17(4.11), 21 (4.689) and 25(4.510) while the least TSS was given by the control on days 9(4.557), 13(4.044), 17(4.214), 21(4.108) and 25 (3.984). V3 gave higher titratable acidity (TA) (0.549) than V2 (0.475) and V1(0.485) on day 5,9(0.587), (0.485) and 17(0.612), (0.526) and (0.579) respectively. V1 produced the highest titratable acidity on the days 13 (0.627) and 21(0.561). Bitterleaf gave the highest titratable acidity on days1 (0.508) and 13 90.679) respectively. Moringa produced the highest TA value on days 9(0.548), 17(0.622) and 21(0.612) while Neem gave the highest TA on day 25 (0.557). V1 gave the highest vitamin C content than V2 and V3 on days 1(9.480), (5.330), (6.880), 5(9.189), (8.584), (5.06) and 9(12.775), (10.620),(10.499) respectively. Neem gave the highest Vitamin C content on days 1(9.400), 5(10.126), 13(10.980), 21(6.996), and 25(6.029). V3 produced significantly higher fruits weight than all the other varieties in days 1 (37.150), 5(35.440), 99(33.620) and 13(31.470). Bitterleaf produced the highest fruit weight on days 1(37.210), 5(35.400) and 9(33.580). The temperature of the storage room ranged from 23.0 - 36.0 and the RH ranged from 45 – 93%. These botanicals are environmentally friendly, cost-effective, easy to produce and easy to apply formulations and are also safe for consumers.