Post-harvest conservation of Passiflora alata fruits under ambient and refrigerated condition

Abstract Brazil is the world's largest producer of passion fruit, a perishable fruit with reduced post-harvest shelf life, which limits its commercialization. For sweet passion fruit, Passiflora alata, there is little information about its postharvest conservation and shelf life under different storage conditions. Thus, the objective of the present study was to determine the post-harvest conservation of P. alata fruits packed on styrofoam trays rapped with 10 μm PVC film and HDPE 30 μm thick, coated with 18% carnauba wax and without any packaging; stored under ambient conditions (25 °C and 70% relative humidity) and refrigerated (10 °C and 90% relative humidity) for 14 days. The best results were obtained with P. alata fruits packaged on styrofoam trays rapped with 10 μm PVC flexible film and kept under refrigeration in a cold room at a temperature of 10 °C and relative humidity between 85% and 90% for a period of 10 to 14 days. Fruits of P. alata , for commercialization “in natura”, kept under ambient conditions, should not be packaged and have a shelf life of up to seven days.摘要：巴西是全球最大的西番莲果（passion fruit）生产国，该水果为易腐品类，采后货架期较短，这一特性制约了其商业化推广。针对甜西番莲（Passiflora alata），目前关于其不同贮藏条件下的采后保鲜方案与货架期的相关研究报道较为匮乏。为此，本研究旨在探究采用以下四种处理方式的甜西番莲果实的采后保鲜效果：以聚苯乙烯泡沫托盘衬垫10μm厚聚氯乙烯（PVC）薄膜包装、30μm厚高密度聚乙烯（HDPE）膜包装、18%巴西棕榈蜡涂膜处理，以及无包装对照组；所有样品分别于室温环境（25℃、相对湿度70%）与冷藏环境（10℃、相对湿度90%）下贮藏14天。实验结果显示，采用聚苯乙烯泡沫托盘衬垫10μm柔性PVC薄膜包装，并置于10℃、相对湿度85%~90%的冷藏库中贮藏的甜西番莲果实，保鲜效果最佳，适宜贮藏时长为10~14天。若需以鲜销形式商业化推广甜西番莲果实，室温贮藏条件下无需进行额外包装，此时其货架期最长可达7天。