The Post-Harvest Deterioration in the Processing Characteristics of Two Sugar Beet Roots Varieties Under Different Levels of Chemical Treatments

Abstract

This research was conducted to study the effect of spraying of sugar beet roots with calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)₂) (5, 10, and 15%), and calcium chloride (CaCl₂) (2, 4, and 6%), compared with the control (not sprayed), on the processing traits during storage period for six days at the field. The experiment was assigned in randomized completely block design (RCBD) with four replicates. The experiment was carried out at Al Ghab Agricultural Research Center, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research (GCSAR)/Syria, on autumn date (15^th of October) during tow growing seasons 2014/2015 and 2015/2016. The results showed that spray roots with calcium hydroxide (5%), attends the best processing traits especially for sucrose percentage (17.28%), and sucrose loss to molasses (0.59%), so it is recommended to be applied to lower the deterioration with prolonging storage period after harvest.

The results also clarified that prolonging storage period in field led to a gradual and significant deterioration in processing traits, started from the first day to the sixth day after harvest, with different percentages i.e., 7.4, 69.9, 55.7, 73.6, 69, 42.8 and 69.4 % for sucrose, sucrose inverted sugars, amino nitrogen, Na, K, total soluble solids and sucrose loss to molasses, respectively. So, it is very important to transfer the harvested roots immediately to the factories to be processed within 24 hours, or it will lose much of its processing characteristics, besides this will cause a daily loss for the product and factory about 650 g sucrose/day per one ton of roots.