Kindly I want to know for the increase of shelf life in post harvest management of fruits, Can we use tween 80 with plant oils and other plant extracts?
First of all you must define what do you mean by increase in shelf life of fruits. Tween 80 and Neem does not seem to be all that right. This is because fruits have some autolytic activity as these are meant to protect and nourish the embryo in it. If you are referring to the microbial spoilage from the surface microbial load then may be a simple blanching may do a lot of good.
Sir , I want to check the impact of Neam oil in increasing shelf life of tomato but essential oils are not soluble in water so what i should use to increase solubility of oils ?
basically my aim to avoid the chemicals to control rotting and follow natural means
You can use edible coating incorporated with different essential oils. For this purpose you should use Tween 80 or EDTA to dissolve essential oil.
Sorry to be very blatant. Actually science follow reality. You ma be very successful in coating tomato with neem oil and tween 80, but you will not be able to preserve. As I said earlier, that every fruit is meant to feed the growing embryo inside it (in the form of seeds) and that is why along with the pulp, nature also provides sufficient water and enzymes to break down the complex substances to simpler form and make it available to the embryo. Therefore, surface coating of preservative does no good.
Thanku Sir Jai Ghosh and Majid Aminzare.
Sir Jai Ghosh, as u said earlier that surface coating for preservative does no good if i will use dipping method is it good or not ??
Even if you dip in you neem oil solution, it will serve no purpose as the autolytic enzymes will be intact and active. See the existing methods like sun drying (which reduces the water activity) and preservation by making puree is most suitable and so far there is no better alternative.
Right Sir Jai Ghosh, thanku so much for your suggestions it will be very helpful.
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