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Thyme oil treatments to control internal rot caused by Fusarium verticillioides in pineapple fruit (Ananas comosus var. MD-2)

Abstract:

Pineapple (Ananas comosus var. MD-2) is a fruit that is highly sensitive to postharvest handling, hence there is a need to prolong its shelf life. Essential oils (i.e., thyme oil) have the potential to improve the postharvest life of various fruits by means of controlling the germination of several postharvest pathogens. Little information is available on the effect of thyme oil to control internal rot of pineapple caused by Fusarium verticillioides during cold storage. Consequently, the effect of different concentrations of thyme oil (100 and 1000 ppm) was assessed in order to reduce postharvest internal fruit rot. Fruit treated with chemical fungicide (3 cm3 L-1 of prochloraz) resulted in a 45.7% reduction in disease of fruit stored for 21 days at 8°C and 90% relative humidity (RH). One hundred ppm of thyme oil showed 21.7% reduction, whereas 1000 ppm thyme oil reduced disease with 48.7% when compared with non-treated fruit. Fruit treated with 1000 ppm thyme was not affect in terms of weight loss and firmness but changes in solid soluble content (SSC), titratable acidity (TA) and pH slowed down. These results suggest that thyme oil (1000 ppm) can be used to control internal fruit rot caused by F. verticillioides in pineapple during storage without a negative effect on the physicochemical quality of the fruit.