A Review of physiological and biochemical changes related to ripening along with post-harvest handling and treatments of Sapota

Abstract

Sapota is a tropical evergreen fruit-bearing tree. In India, it is commonly known as Chikoo. India is one of the largest producers of sapota in the world. It is very delicious. Apart from the delicious nature, the fruits possess nutritive as well as medicinal properties. But due to shorter shelf life, it could not be stored for a long period. Post-harvest losses are very much high in the case of sapota. Proper post-harvest management that includes both pre-harvest and post-harvest treatments are required to increase the post-harvest life as well as to maintain the quality of the fruits. Pre-harvest treatments such as application of different chemicals i.e. during vegetative as well as reproductive stage and post-harvest treatments such as pre-cooling, chemicals, heat treatments, waxing or coating, cold storage, irradiation, modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), controlled atmosphere storage, etc are used to increase the shelf life. This article gives a brief review of physiological and biochemical changes that occur during ripening of sapota and also explores the pre-harvest and post-harvest treatments adopted to enhance the shelf life of sapota.