Harnessing The Antifungal Properties Of Hexanal And Mycomolecules Against Postharvest Pathogens Of Mango And Banana

Abstract

India is the largest producer of fruits globally and Tamil Nadu shares 10 per cent newlineof the production. Mango is cultivated in about 1.52 lakh ha with an annual production of newline12.68 lakh MT, while banana is grown in 0.82 lakh ha with an average annual production newlineof 32.05 lakh MT. Post-harvest losses of fruits are mainly due to the biological damages newlineby fungal pathogen lead to huge losses of agricultural produce. Post-harvest pathogens newlineinfect different parts of plants and cause floral infection, stem end infection, and they newlinealso become quiescent Among the post harvest diseases, anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum newlinegloeosporioides in mango and C. musae in banana and stem/stalk end rot caused by newlineLasiodiplodia theobromae are the most widely known pathogens inciting huge economic newlinelosses in teir fruits during post harvest handling. newlineThe pathogenicity studies carried with C. gloeosporioides and C. musae showed newlinecharacteristic symptoms of anthracnose and L. theobroame produced characteristic newlinesymptoms of stem end rot in mango and banana. Hexanal a volatile chemical produced newlineby cucumber and biomolecules of medicinal mushroom Ophiocodyceps sinensis were newlinetested against the post harvest pathogens of mango and banana. In vitro studies revealed newlinethat the PDA medium supplemented with Enhanced Freshness Formulation (EFF) having newline2 per cent of hexanal completely inhibited the mycelial development of mango newlineanthracnose pathogen, C. gloeosporioides. In case of C. musae the mycelial growth newlineinhibition was 89.1 per cent and in L. theobromae it was 66.3 per cent with 2 per cent newlineEFF. Dip treatment of mango fruits with EFF (2 per cent) recorded the lowest incidence newlineof anthracnose in mango var. Alphonso (18.2 per cent) and banana var. Grand Naine newline(14.3 per cent) whereas, the inoculated control samples were entirely rotten with newline94.0 per cent disease incidence. The EFF (2 per cent) dip treatment had no incidence of newlinestem-end rot disease on mango fruits var. Alphonso and stalk end rot disease on banana newlinefruits var. Grand Naine. The EFF (2 per cent) dip