The 2010 ASHS Annual Conference

Banana is one of the most consumed tropical fruits around the world. It is marketed nearly all year round and has very short shelf life. Fruits are harvested mature green and shipped in this stage to markets. Banana fruit ripens and senesces fast and become unfit for marketing within 1-2 days after turning yellow. Thus 1-2 days of improvement in the shelf life could add much market value. Previous studies conducted in our laboratory have demonstrated that Lysophosphatidylethanolamine (LPE) application can retard aging and improve shelf life of various fruits. No research has been conducted on banana with LPE. The objective of our study was to investigate the possibility of improving shelf life of banana fruit by a postharvest dip in LPE. For this purpose, whole fruits obtained from the market at ripeness stage of 2.5 (about 50% green) were dipped in a solution of 500ppm LPE (soy lecithin derived) for 30 minutes and observed for a period of four days at room temperature. Each treatment was applied to 50 fruits. From each hand an equal number of fruits were separated for LPE and control (H₂O) treatments. At the end of four days when the control fruit started to show brown spots, the experiment was terminated. From each fruit peel slices were obtained for ion leakage measurement. LPE treatment had no significant effect on fruit weight loss. However, fruit diameter was reduced significantly more in control than in LPE treated fruits. Furthermore, ion leakage from the fruit peel was significantly higher in control than in LPE treated fruits. Visual observation showed that the LPE treatment improved the shelf life by about one day. Our studies strengthen the findings of earlier research that LPE can retard senescence by improving membrane health and suggest that a post harvest dip treatment with LPE could be used to improve shelf life of banana fruits.