The mango (Mangifera indica L.) is a climacteric and highly perishable fruit that requires specialized postharvest handling to extend its storage life. The study was undertaken at Melkassa Agricultural Research Center (MARC) to evaluate the influence of 1-Methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) and polyethylene packaging (PP) on postharvest storage of mango. Fruits of two mango cultivars namely ‘Apple’ and ‘Kent’ were harvested at green-mature stage and were treated with gaseous 1-MCP (100 or 500 nLL-1) in closed plastic containers for 18 hours and then individual fruits were either packaged with perforated polyethylene bags or kept without packaging. They were stored up to 21 days under ambient condition at temperature of 25.7 ±2.6oC and relative humidify of
66.1±11.8%. Treatments were laid out in factorial arrangement in RCBD with three replications. The physiological weight loss (PWL), peel color change, firmness, juice content, total soluble solids (TSS) and titratable acidity (TA) were significantly (p<0.01) affected by 1-MCP treatment and polyethylene packaging throughout the storage periods. The 1-MCP treated and packaged fruits showed better performance in all physiological ripening qualities as compared to 1-MCP untreated and non-packaged fruits. The 1-MCP treatment and polyethylene packaging significantly reduced PWL. These treatments maintained better mango fruit quality in terms of firmness, juice content and TSS of mangoes. Thus, the result clearly showed that 1-MCP treatment and polyethylene packaging at ambient condition can extend storage life and maintain quality of mango fruits for about nine and six days, respectively. Therefore, 1-MCP treatment and polyethylene packaging can be used separately or together to extend storage life and maintain quality of mango fruits for remarkable days. Therefore, 1-MCP and PP can be used singly or combined to extend the shelf life and maintain quality of mango fruit for weeks on ambient storage condition.
