INFLUENCE OF HERBAL EDIBLE COATINGS ON PHYTOCHEMICAL CONTENT OF GUAVA DURING STORAGE
Guava is a climacteric fruit ripens rapidly after harvest and therefore has short shelf life. The fruits are required to be managed appropriately to get a regulated market supply through judicious use of post-harvest treatments. Therefore, the main aim of the study was to assess the suitability of different edible coating treatments like Aloe vera gel and papaya leaf extract at varying concentrations (5, 10, 15 and 20%) on the phytochemical content of guava fruits (cultivar ‘Lucknow-49’). After treatment, fruits were kept under ambient conditions and analyzed for various phytochemical parameters while the uncoated fruits served as control. Among all the treatments, minimum mean ascorbic acid content (198.99 mg/100g), total flavonoids (68.96), total antioxidants (235.44 ?mol. trolex eq./100g) and total phenols (446.58 mg GAE/100g) were recorded in control guava fruits whereas, maximum mean ascorbic acid content of 237.01 mg/100g, total flavonoids of 81.43 mg/100g and total phenol content of 481.36 mg GAE/100g were observed in 20% Aloe vera gel coated guava fruits. Thus it can be concluded from the study that guava fruits can be safely stored up to 21 days at ambient storage without much deterioration in quality after treating with Aloe vera gel