Efficiency of calcium chloride (CaCl2) treatment on post-harvest performance of pear (Pyrus communis L.)

Calcium is present in the primary cell wall and middle lamella in the form of pectic substances of all plant tissues. The gradual penetration of calcium to cell wall results in increasing level of this ion in the cell wall and thus stabilization increases which may protects the fruit from fungal and other microbial attack or contamination. Keeping in view its importance, a post- harvest study was assessed at ARI Tarnab Farm, Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to evaluate the effect of Calcium chloride (CaCI2) treatment on physio-chemical quality of pear (Pyrus communis L.) during storage. Fresh and disease free pear fruits were dipped in CaCl2 solution for (3, 6 and 9 minutes) and evaluated at 5 days interval for different physio-chemical attributes. The analysis of data showed that pear fruits dipped in CaCl2 solution for 9 minutes significantly affected the fruit juice pH, ascorbic acid, percent titratable acidity, total soluble solid, reducing sugar, and non-reducing sugar. Similarly, prolonged storage duration resulted a significant increasing trend in fruit juice pH, total soluble solids and non-reducing sugar, while ascorbic acid content, percent titratable acidity and reducing sugar decreased with extension in storage duration from zero to twenty-five days. It was concluded from the results that pear fruits dipped for 9 minutes in CaCl2 solution was effective in retaining quality attributes during storage at ambient temperature (20°C with 65-70% RH). Keywords: CaCl2, Dipping time, Le-Conte, Physiological disorder, Post-harvest loses, Shelf life http://dx.doi.org/10.19045/bspab.2019.80053