Effectiveness of aloe vera gel coating and paraffin wax-coated paperboard packaging on post-harvest quality of hog plum (Spondius mangifera L.).

In this research work, hog plum (Spondius mangifera L.) was treated with Aloe vera gel (AVG) coating and paraffin wax-coated box (PWB) packaging and stored at ambient condition (25 ± 3 °C and 80-85% relative humidity) for 12 d to evaluate their impact on postharvest quality and storability. The physicochemical properties, microbiological analysis, and decay evaluation were analyzed throughout the storage period. The AVG and PWB coating treatments both demonstrated a significant effect on the quality of fruits during storage. The results showed that fruits with AVG coating and PWB packaging exhibited lower decay rates, weight loss, color difference, total microbial population, total soluble solids, titratable acidity, and higher fruit firmness and pH than uncoated (control) fruits. The AVG coating was the most effective treatment, followed by the PWB packaging treatment. Our findings show that the AVG coating and PWB packaging treatment can be a promising solution for preserving the quality of hog plums and also helps in increasing the lifetime of hog plums during storage.

Optimization of spray drying parameters for pink guava powder using RSM.

The optimization of pink guava was executed using central composite face-centred design to optimize the spray drying parameters of inlet temperature, maltodextrin concentration (MDC) and feed flow (FF). The experimental results were significantly (p<0.01) fitted into second-order polynomial models to describe and predict the response quality in terms of the final moisture, particle size and lycopene with R 2 of 0.9749, 0.9616, and 0.9505, respectively. The final moisture content significantly (p<0.01) decreased with increasing inlet temperature and MDC, whereas the particle size increased. In contrast, the lycopene content significantly (p<0.01) decreased with the higher temperature and increased with increasing MDC. However, according to multiple response optimization, the optimum conditions of 150°C inlet temperature, 17.12% (w/v) MDC and 350 mL/h FF-predicted 3.10% moisture content, 11.23 µm particle size and 58.71 mg/100 g lycopene content. The experimental observation satisfied the predicted model within the acceptable range of the responses.