Study of the Effect of Treatment with some Plant Compounds on the Storage Capacity and Quality of Plum Fruits Stanley Cultivar

Abstract

This experiment was carried out at the Faculty of Agricultural Engineering at Damascus University in the cold storage of the Department of Food Sciences for the season 2019-2020. The fruits were picked from Sargaya area / Damascus countryside and the fruits were immered with two concentrations of the following plant extracts: taninin extract of pomegranate peel at a concentration of 4 and 8%, commercial rosemary oil 2 and 4% and distilled rosemary oil 2 and 4%, for 10 minutes at room temperature. The fruits were divided into two groups, the first group was filled with polyethylene bags with a thickness of 30 microns and perforated 24 holes from each treatment, and the second group was left without packaging, to study the combined effect of immersing the fruits with their packaging. The fruits were stored at 0-1°C and 90-99% humidity for 60 days. The study showed that immersing the fruits in 4% distilled rosemary oil gave the best results by maintaining the quality of the fruits in terms of the studied indicators (weight loss, absolute loss and hardness), and treatment with 2% distilled rosemary oil maintained the absolute loss in fruits. The content of titratable acids and dissolved solids did not register any significant differences between the different immersion treatments. The packing treatments outperformed in maintaining the studied indicators (loss by weight and Soulable Solids). The interaction between the immersion and packaging treatments had an effective effect in maintaining the quality of the stored fruits, as the pomegranate peel had an effective role in reducing the percentage of weight loss until the end of the storage period. There were no significant differences with the treatment with rosemary extract in maintaining the hardness values ​​at the end of the storage period. Storage, 2% distilled rosemary also maintained titrated acidity.