Advances in Post Harvest Treatments of Fruits—A Review Asrey Ram, C Sasikala, Barman Kalyan, Koley Tanmay Kumar Post Harvest Technology Division, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, 110 012 Abstract Being the bio-material, the quality retention and loss prevention of fruits during handling, storage and retailing always remained a critical for researchers, policy makers, processors and consumers. In past, there were several chemicals in use for post harvest treatment of fruits; but due to advancement in techonology, health consciousness of consumers and environmental concern had phased out these chemicals with the adoptions of improved ones. In last couple of years, some environmental and consumer friendly post harvest treatment materials like polyamines, edible waxes, 1-Methylcyclopropane and ozonized water are gaining popularity world over. Polyamines like putrescine, spermidine and spermine are very useful molecules and now being gainfully utilized for minimizing mechanical damage, chilling injuries during storage and overall shelf-life extension of fruits. Edible waxes are now being obtained from plant (carnauba wax, zein protein, alovera, guar gum) and sea fauna (chitosan). These are strong physiological activity retardants and antifungal substances. In developed countries, 1-Methylcyclopropane (1-MCP) is commercially used for fruit treatment in order to minimize ethylene evolution during transit and storage. Ozonized water is an ideal and cheap sanitizer which is being used for washing of produce. Top Keywords Fruits, post-harvest treatments, polyamine (PAs), edible coating, 1-Methylcyclopropane, ozone. Top |