Plasma-activated water: Mechanism and treatment duration for postharvest disease control and shelf-life enhancement of mango under ambient storage

by Mst. Habiba Tamanna, Showdia Sarmin, Umme Afroza Irin, Mst.

Khadiza Khatun, Mamunur Rashid Talukder, Md. Mahmodol Hasan In Bangladesh, a large quantity of mango is lost every year due to post-harvest diseases, particularly anthracnose and stem-end rot.

Therefore, sustainable post-harvest management is crucial for reducing the losses. In this study, we investigated the effects of plasma treatments on mango to mitigate post-harvest losses.

The mangoes were submerged in distilled water (DW), and then DW-submerged mangos were treated for 10 minutes employing multi-capillary bubble discharged plasma jet system using air and oxygen gases separately. Plasma treatments significantly influenced disease incidence, severity, and physio-chemical properties of mangoes.

On the 10 th day, the Khirsapat mango, treated with a 10-minute air-discharge plasma, exhibited a significant (≤0.05) reduction in anthracnose incidence (20%) and severity (2.33%) compared with control (incidence 80% and severity 61.67%). Similarly, the 10-minute air-discharge plasma treatment consistently reduced the incidence (20%) and severity (15%) of stem-end rot.