Prof. Mustafa Hamza Mohamed Mohamed :: Publications:

This study was conducted during the two successive seasons of 2015 and 2016 at El-Kanater El-Khairia Horticulture Research station and Vegetables Handling Research Department, Horticulture Research Institute, Giza Governorate. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of some post-harvest treatments on quality and storability of cassava root (Indonesian cultivar).Roots were harvested from plants cultivated in sandy soil in mid of January during the two seasons, respectively. The roots were then divided into two groups for room temperature (25C) and cold storage (5C), each group was exposed to 10 treatments each with three replicates. Each replicate consisted of three roots. The treatments included dipping of roots for 5 minutes in:-ascorbic acid at 1 %, calcium chloride solution at 1 %, Bio-health solution at 1 %, Jasmine oil, chitosan at 1 %, wrapping in polypropylen film with 30 Mm thickness, Parafin Wax, Hydrogen peroxide solution at 1 %, hot water at 55C and control (non-treated roots). All treatments were air-dried and packed in carton boxes (5 kg) then stored at 25 °C and 90-95 % relative humidity under room temperature (first group) or stored at 5° C in the refrigerator (second group).Roots were inspected each 5 days for room temperature storage and each 10 days for treatments healed in the cold storage. Complete randomize design with three replicates was used. Obtained results show that the lowest weight loss and decay percentages were recorded in cassava roots treated with H2O2 under room temperature and 5C in the two tested seasons. On the other side, the highest weight loss, decay, dry matter, starch content and phenol percentages were detected in control treatment in the two tested seasons.