Use of hot water treatment to control crown rot disease of banana

Abstract EN

Heat treatments are currently used as an alternative to chemical treatments to control postharvest disease and pests in various horticultural products.

Banana crown rot is the main disease affects the quality of banana fruits during transport and marketing.

The objective of this study is to know the effects of hot water treatments on mycelium growth and conidia germination of Colletotrichum musae, Chalara paradoxa and Fusarium sp., and evaluation of dipping of banana fruits in hot water as potential control procedure against crown rot.

Fruit in clusters were subjected to 45, 50 and 55°C for up to 40 min followed by dipping in running cold water for 10 min.

the result showed that exposure of fruit to water at 55°C for 20 min and longer caused peel blacking and a failure to soften.

Hot water treatment for 20 min at 50°C inhibited conidia germination by (11.3%, 5.7% and 11.3%) for Colletotrichum musae, Chalara paradoxa and Fusarium sp respectively, there is no significant difference (p ≤ 0.05) for this treatment with treatment at 50°C for 30 min and 40 min and also with 55°C for 20 min and longer which did not inhibited conidia germination but caused severe skin scald and a failure to soften, so 50°C for 20 min provide an excellent way of controlling the growth of these three pathogens on banana crown and had no skin scald.