Post-harvest conservation of mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana): Influence of fruit harvest stage and effectiveness of some practical conservation treatments

ABSTRACT

Post-harvest losses caused by poor fruit storage can in some cases reach more than 80% of the crop. For the mangosteen crop, these losses are all the more important as they constitute a major problem. In Côte d’Ivoire, the few mangosteen preservation techniques have been developed mainly by traders and are based on limiting exchanges with the surrounding environment. However, these techniques are not very effective because they only preserve the fruit for a few days. In order to address this issue, the present study aims to evaluate the influence of the harvesting stage and the effectiveness of preservation treatments on the storage time and the evolution of several physical and biochemical parameters of the mangosteen. To this end, mangosteens harvested at two different stages of maturity were subjected to different preservation treatments (refrigeration, bagging, oil coating and blanching). The results showed that the storage time of the mangosteen was significantly longer with fruit harvested at the orange-red stage. Also, two of the four storage treatments evaluated, namely refrigeration and bagging, significantly extended the shelf life of the mangosteen (+15 and+6 days respectively with these treatments). In contrast to these treatments, blanching caused a reduction in fruit storage time.

KEYWORDS:

• Conservation
• fruit
• mangosteen
• post-harvest
• maturation
• Côte d’Ivoire

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the institutions that contributed to the success conduct of the work. We would like to thank the head of the Laboratory of Food Science and Technology of the University Nangui Abrogoua (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire). We would also like to thank the director of the Central Laboratory of the University Nangui Abrogoua and the head of the Laboratory of Environmental Sciences of the University Nangui Abrogoua who provided us with the technical equipment for the realization of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Declaration of data availability

The authors confirm that the data supporting the results of this study are available in the article. We are therefore at your disposal for any additional needs.

Highlights

• The conservation of mangosteen is strongly influenced by the stage of ripeness of the fruits at the cut

• Refrigeration and bagging have significantly extended the shelf life of mangosteen