engleski

Effect of ozone treatment on mandarin pathogens

World mandarin production increased up to record 33.3 million tonnes nowadays. Over the past 20 years, production and consumption have trended upward due to favourable weather conditions world- wide. Citrus fruits can be infested by many fungal pathogens that cause significant losses during storage and transportation. Green mould, caused by Penicillium digitatum Sacc. with 36.3%, and blue mould, caused by P. italicum Weh. with 23.3%, are among the most widespread and serious diseases. The use of fungicides is a common practise in postharvest treatments to control fruit rot. Nowadays, environmentally friendly methods of postharvest disease control are receiving increasing attention due to the effects of chemical residues on fruits and negative health consequences for consumers. The present study was conducted to determine the antifungal potential of ozone used as a gas or dissolved in water as an alternative control method for stored mandarins for curative suppression of blue mould P. italicum. Artificially infected fruits were exposed to ozone treatment in the two storage/transport systems - cardboard boxes and closed Styrofoam boxes during period of 1 - 3 days and treatment durations: 10, 30 and 60 minutes. The results confirmed that repeated treatments significantly reduced fruit infection compared to just one treatment, regardless of the treatment durations. The results show that ozone has an efficiency of 82 - 94% when applied as a gas and an efficiency of 84 - 94% when dissolved in water in both storage/transport systems. There was no significant difference between standard fungicide treatment and ozone application.

cardboard, mandarine, mould, ozone, styrofoam

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