Efficacy of Hot Air Treatment on Post Harvest Decay of Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L) Fruits Artificially Infected with Spores of Aspergillus niger
- Authors
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O.O. Oladele
Department of Biology, The Federal University of Technology, P.M.B. 704 Akure Nigeria
Author
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O.I. Fatukasi
Department of Biology, The Federal University of Technology, P.M.B. 704 Akure Nigeria
Author
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F.D. Oyedokun
Department of Biology, The Federal University of Technology, P.M.B. 704 Akure Nigeria
Author
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- Keywords:
- Array, Array, Array, Array, Array
- Abstract
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This study was undertaken to investigate the efficacy of hot air treatment on postharvest decay of cucumber fruits artificially infected with spores of Aspergillus niger. Healthy and matured cucumber fruits were artificially inoculated with spore suspension (3.36×102 spores/ml) of A. niger after harvest and were later subjected to hot air (HA) treatments at the following heat regimes: 40 and 50oC for 10, 20 and 30 minutes each and then stored at 28 ± 2C and 75 ± 5% RH while inoculated but untreated fruits served as control. Results showed that HA treatment of infected cucumber at 40 and 50C for 20mins each delayed for 40 days the onset of Aspergillus infection in vivo when compared with the untreated fruits that had started showing disease symptoms by day 15. Thus, the above HA durations could be useful in extending the cucumber postharvest shelf life and can be explored as cheap, natural and safe substitute for post-harvest control of tropical fruits over commercial fungicides.
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- Published
- 2025-06-30
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- Articles