Post harvest treatment affect on fruits characteristics storage of local apricot cv. Zanjelli

The present study carried out to evaluate the efficacy of package type (MAP), KMnO4 and storage period in maintaining the postharvest quality of local apricot cv. Zanjelli fruits. The fruits were harvested from the orchard of Horticulture Department/ college of agriculture/Duhok University, Duhok Governorate – Kurdistan region- Iraq. Fruits at the commercially mature stage were manual harvested carefully to avoid mechanical injury in fruits at 20 June 2010. Then fruit separated randomly to groups according to their treatment for study the effect of [2 package type (perforated and non-perforated), 3 levels of KMnO4 (0, 20 and 30g/ bag) and 2 storage period ( 2 and 4 week)] on weight loss, ascorbic acid (V.C.), total soluble solids, total titratable acid, total sugars and carotene content. MAP whether in non-perforated polythene bag significantly reduce fruit weight loss %, V.C. and flesh fruit total carotene content but increase total acid%, however TSS% and total sugar% not influenced significantly by the type of package. Higher levels of total acidity observed at the fruit treated with 30g KMnO4, on other hand fruit treated with KMnO4 recorded lower level of fruit weight loss, TSS, total sugar and total carotene content all of these parameters were significantly differ from 0 KMnO4 while there were no significant difference between treated and non-treated fruit in ascorbic acid. When storage period prolonged from 2 to 4 week significantly effect on cumulative fruit weight loss and total carotene, on other hand ascorbic acid and total acidity significantly decreased, nevertheless TSS and total sugar not impressed significantly when storage time progressed