Heat treatment: a natural way to inhibit postharvest diseases in rockmelon.

摘要

The export of rockmelons from Australia to neighbouring countries has increased over the past few years. However, the rate of decay is high due to postharvest diseases such as Fusarium spp., Alternaria spp. and Colletotrichum spp., if these fruits are not treated with chemical fungicides. We examined the use of hot water fruit dipping as an organic way of preventing postharvest diseases. In studies conducted, we found that by dipping rockmelons in 50, 55, 60 and 65 degrees C water for one minute, disease development was dramatically inhibited at all temperatures in comparison to the control (22 degrees C). A one minute exposure to 60 degrees C was the optimum temperature, resulting in 97 percent of fruit being disease free after 3 weeks storage at 5 degrees C (simulated export conditions) compared to only 7 percent when dipped in 22 degrees C water..