摘要：

Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum L.) is an attractive tropical fruit due to its hairy appearance, red and yellow pericarp shades, and green-tipped hair-like spinterns. The fruits are highly perishable, non-climacteric and the browning of spintern as well as pericarp reduces their marketability and limits shelf life. The present study evaluated the efficacy of aloe gel coating in reducing the spintern browning of rambutan fruits for extended shelf life. Rambutan fruits of medium size, harvested at commercial maturity as determined by pericarp colour (redness), were selected for the study. After cleaning and sanitisation (ozonation two ppm), fruits were subjected to postharvest treatments with aloe gel (10, 25, 50%) as dipping for 5 minutes and were stored in CFB boxes at room temperature. Physiological loss in weight increased during the storage, and 50% aloe gel recorded the lowest weight loss (18.19%) with the highest retention of total soluble solids (17.98°Brix), acidity (0.40 %), moisture content (79.05%), total sugar (20.75%), reducing sugar (3.14%), ascorbic acid (22.69 mg 100g-1), total phenols (3.48 mg 100g-1), and antioxidant activity (68.85%). The aloe gel (50%) coated rambutan fruits packaged in ventilated polypropylene and stored under refrigerated conditions (12±1°C) recorded the lowest physiological loss in weight (9.33%), and the highest total soluble solids (16.96°Brix), acidity (0.30 %), moisture content (80.08%), total sugar (17.67%), reducing sugar (2.84%), and ascorbic acid (19.42 mg 100 g-1) content with the lowest browning score and higher score for organoleptic qualities and extended the shelf life up to 16 days with higher marketability.

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