Enhancing postharvest shelf life and quality of guava (Psidium guajava L.) cv. Allahabad Safeda by pre-harvest application of hexanal containing aqueous formulation.

• EFF, a hexanal formulation, enhanced guava fruit postharvest shelf life & quality.
• Fruit treated with EFF can be stored for over three weeks without damage.
• EFF treatment retained firmness, vitamin C and phenolics content.

Postharvest shelf life and quality parameters were evaluated for winter guava fruit cv. ‘Allahabad Safeda’ that had beensubjected to preharvest sprays during two seasons. To enhance the postharvest shelf life and quality of guava, a novel technology involvingpreharvest spray applications of an aqueous hexanal formulation(EFF-0.01%, 0.015% and 0.02% v/v final; 0.8 mM, 1.2 mM and 1.6 mM final respectively) was applied and its effect was compared with those observed afterspray applications of calcium nitrate.Fruit were harvested during the third week of December at the firm mature stage, packed in corrugated fibre board boxes with newspaper lining and stored in a walk-in-cold room maintained at 6–8 °C and 90–95% RH. Fruit were analyzed at weekly intervals for five weeks of storage to evaluate various quality attributes. In control fruit harvested from untreated trees, weight loss, and decay incidence increased, whereas, firmness, ascorbic acid, acidity, total phenols and pectin content decreased during storage. Fruit treated with 0.015% v/vof hexanal formulation showed minimum decay incidence, reduced pectin methylesterase activity, increased firmness, total soluble solids, acidity, pectin and phenol contents, and also maintained highly acceptable organoleptic ratingsfor up to 4 weeks of storage. Fruit subjected to Ca(NO3)2 treatments were intermediate in quality attributes between that of the control and EFF-treated fruit.