EFFECT OF DISEASE INCIDENCE ON PHYSICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS OF DRAGON FRUIT UNDER VARIABLE STORAGE ENVIRONMENTSPratik S. Tanpure, Vishal Johar, Vanita N. Salunkhe, Vikram Singh, Deepak Thorat, Shubahm Temgire and Suprikesh KadlagAbstract The present study was conducted at ICAR-National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management (ICAR-NIASM), Baramati (Pune) in collaboration with School of Agriculture, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara (Punjab). In order to determine the effect of disease incidence on physical and biochemical parameters of dragon fruit under variable storage environments, the experiment was designed as a completely randomized block design with four replications of five fruits each. As a result of the study, at anthracnose spore inoculated area white dragon fruit had a greater length of the fruit, a larger diameter of the fruit, and a larger weight of the fruit (161.10 g). When fruit kept at non-inoculated area, similar results were also reported for fruit length (80.32 cm), fruit diameter (65.24 cm), and fruit weight (171.09 g). However, biochemical parameters, such as TSS (12.02°Brix), non-reducing sugar (4.56 %), reducing sugar (5.20 %), total phenol (244.50 mg/GAE/100 g), and total flavonoids (72.00 mg CE/100 g) were better for red dragon fruit compared to white dragon fruit. |