Impact of postharvest polyamine treatments on the physico-chemical quality and shelf life of banana (Musa spp.) cv. Karpooravalli

Abstract

Banana cultivar karpooravalli (ABB group), widely grown in South India, is particularly susceptible to rapid ripening and spoilage under ambient storage, limiting marketable life to 3–4 days. To address this challenge, an experiment was conducted to assess the effect of postharvest polyamine application on the shelf life and quality of banana cv. Karpooravalli. The fruits were subjected to seven treatments arranged in a Factorial Completely Randomized Design (FCRD) with three replications: T₁ (putrescine 0.5 mM), T₂ (putrescine 1 mM), T₃ (putrescine 1.5 mM), T₄ (spermine 2.5 μM), T₅ (spermine 5 μM), T₆ (spermine 7.5 μM), and T₇ (control). The results revealed that fruits treated with putrescine at 1 mM showed best values for firmness (16.59, 11.75, 6.02 N), TSS (6.27, 13.91, 19.56 º Brix) titratable acidity (0.39, 0.26, 0.21 per cent), ascorbic acid (19.17, 18.13, 17.32 mg /100 g), total phenolic content (56.52. 43.93, 33.46 GAE /100 g), total sugar (5.21, 9.83, 15.51 per cent), reducing sugar (4.11, 6.98, 10.22 per cent) and non-reducing sugar (1.10, 2.85, 5.29 per cent) along with reduced physiological weight loss (4.38, 8.76, 13.15 per cent) during 3rd, 6th and 9th day of storage respectively compared to the control. This treatment also extended the shelf life under ambient storage conditions up to 9 days. Overall, the study demonstrated that postharvest application of polyamines, particularly 1 mM putrescine, effectively delayed ripening, preserved fruit quality, and extended the shelf life of banana fruits.