Shelf life and quality of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) fruits as affected by neem leaf extract dipping and beeswax coating

Abstract

The effect of Beeswax (BW) coating and Neem leaf extract (NLE) dipping on the shelf life of tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) was investigated over a storage period of 36 days. The experiment was done by a factorial combination of four levels of NLE dipping (0, 15%, 20% and 25%) and BW coating (0, 3%, 6% and 9%) in randomized complete block design with three replications. It was observed that BW9*NLE25 significantly (P < .001) extended the shelf life of tomato fruits by eight days and effectively reduced weight loss by 55–68%, the changes in TA by 20–66.7%, PH by 6.3–14.1%, and TSS by 2.8–6.9%. Toward the end of the storage period (on the 28th day), BW9*NLE25 found to have 39.4% higher marketable fruits while reducing the percent decay by 96.1% compared to untreated tomato fruits. The study result showed that BW9*NLE25 could potentially be utilized to extend the shelf life and maintain the quality of tomato fruits by farmers, retailers, and wholesalers.