Finding out the suitable postharvest treatments for extending shelf life of Jujube

Jujube is an extremely perishable fruit with a short shelf life and a considerable proportion of harvested jujube get spoiled due to the postharvest decay. Application of calcium chloride and edible chitosan coatings is a key step to reduce the loss of perishable commodities. The current study was designed to evaluate the effect of postharvest calcium and chitosan coating on maintaining fruit quality and shelf life of jujube during storage at ambient conditions. The fruit samples were coated with 2% and 4% solution of CaCl₂, 1g and 2g of chitosan solution and combined application of CaCl₂ and chitosan. Untreated fruits were maintained as the control. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design with three replications of the treatments. Changes in different physico-chemical parameters were recorded to evaluate the effectiveness of the treatments in extending fruit shelf life and sustaining postharvest quality of jujube. Results revealed that weight loss of untreated jujube fruits were almost higher than the weight loss of treated fruits. The change in color was faster in untreated jujube, whereas the slower changes in fruit color and texture was recorded in the fruits treated with calcium and chitosan. Application of calcium chloride and chitosan at 0.5% significantly reduced physiological weight loss (%), color change, total soluble solid (°Brix), titratable acidity (%) along with maintained texture, shrinking and shelf life of jujube compared to the untreated control. 

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