Postharvest ripening and quality of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) during cold storage

Abstract

The present studies were conducted to obtain information about the effect of ethephon and ethylene gas on ripening and quality of winter tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) using hybrid Avinash-3. The first experiment comprised of treatment of mature green tomatoes with different concentrations of aqueous solution of ethephon (500, 1000 and 1500 ppm) for 5 minutes. The fruits were packed in plastic crates and kept in storage room at 20±1oC and 90-95% RH. The second experiment comprised of exposing the mature green tomatoes to ethylene gas (100 ppm) inside the ripening chamber for 24 hours (20±1oC and 90-95% RH) and thereafter kept in the ripening chamber maintained at 20±1oC and 90- 95% RH. The one lot of fruits was not treated and kept as control. The physico-chemical parameters of fruits from mature green to senescent stage of maturation were analyzed. The ethylene gas (100 ppm) treatment registered the highest ripening percentage. The ripening and rotting percentage increased with increase in the concentration of ethephon (500-1500 ppm) and with the duration of days for which the fruits were kept for ripening. The titratable acidity of tomato fruits experienced a linear decline but ascorbic acid and lycopene content registered an increase with the advancement of ripening period irrespective of any treatment. The tomato fruits harvested at green mature stage get successfully ripened in 9 days with application of ethephon (500, 1000, 1500 ppm) but the rotting was more than 14 per cent till 9th day in Hybrid-1001 which makes fruits unmarketable. Therefore, the application of ethephon for ripening is not a good option. Treatment with ethylene gas (100 ppm) resulted in adequate ripening of fruits after 9 days with uniform red colour, desirable firmness, minimum rotting and acceptable quality and therefore this treatment is better over ethephon. In control fruits similar results of ripening, firmness, rotting and quality were observed as incase of ethylene gas (100 ppm) treatment but the fruits get longer time (11 days) to uniformly ripen.