ABSTRACT

Akabare chilli (Capsicum chinese) is a high-value crop in the eastern hills of Nepal. Akabare growers faced the problem of its value decrement during transportation and marketing because of immediate post-harvest losses. This study was targeted for finding cheap post-harvest treatment to extend freshness and shelf life of fresh Akabare by applying post-harvest treatments like hydrocooling, refrigerated temperature storage, and perforation mediated plastic packaging. The chemical qualities (moisture, vitamin C and chlorophyll content) were studied on a regular interval of 4 days along with visual inspection for 20 days. The package modification included unperforated as well as perforated polypropylene bags having 2, 4 and 6 perforations of 2.5 mm diameter. Samples without any treatment remained fresh only for 2 days, while only hydrocooled samples retained moisture, vitamin C and chlorophyll content significantly (p < .05) higher than untreated, in both storage temperatures. None of the samples stored at room temperature retained freshness beyond 4 days. Thus, based on the better retention of moisture and vitamin C content, hydrocooling followed by packaging in polypropylene bag (four perforations) and storage at refrigerated temperature could be considered the best post-harvest treatment and packaging.

摘要

Akabare辣椒（辣椒）是尼泊尔东部丘陵地区的高价值作物。由于收获后立即损失，Akabare种植者在运输和销售过程中面临其价值下降的问题。这项研究的目的是寻找廉价的收获后处理以延长新鲜Akabare的新鲜度和保质期通过采用收获后处理，例如水冷，冷藏温度存储和穿孔介导的塑料包装。每隔4天定期进行化学质量（水分，维生素C和叶绿素含量）的研究，并目视检查20天。包装的修改包括未穿孔的以及有2.5毫米直径的2、4和6个穿孔的聚丙烯穿孔袋。未经处理的样品仅新鲜保存2天，而只有水冷样品保留了水分，维生素C和叶绿素含量（p在两个储存温度下均低于未处理的<.05）。在室温下保存的样品中，没有超过4天的新鲜度。因此，基于更好地保留水分和维生素C含量，水冷后再将其包装在聚丙烯袋中（四个孔眼）并在冷藏温度下存储可以被认为是最佳的收获后处理和包装。