Relative uptake of the fungicide carbendazim by selected fruits and vegetables and keeping quality of apple and tomato after dip treatment.

Himanish Das, S. Jayaraman and Mahadeva Naika

Food Contaminants Division, Defence Food Research Laboratory, Siddarthanagar, Mysore - 570 011, India.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37855/jah.2003.v05i02.21

Key words: apples, ascorbic acid, bananas, carbendazim, carrots, crop quality, fungicide residues, fungicides, grapes, lycopene, moisture content, okras, oranges, sapodillas, spoilage, storage dips, storage life, storage losses, titratable acidity, tomatoes
Abstract: A study was conducted to evaluate the uptake of carbendazim by 8 fruits and vegetables, i.e. tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum), apple (Malus pumila), carrot (Daucus carota), okra (Abelmoschus esculentus), orange (Citrus sinensis), grape (Vitis vinifera), sapota (Achras zapota [Manilkara zapota]) and banana (Musa paradisiaca), dipped in aqueous carbendazim suspension under laboratory conditions. The effect of carbendazim dips on the storage life of apple and tomato was also investigated. The uptake of carbendazim varied significantly, ranging from 68.97+or-2.89 to 813.64+or- 11.46 micro g (mean 342.13 micro g), among the fruits and vegetables. The lowest uptake was recorded in apple, followed by banana, orange, tomato, okra, grape, sapota and carrot. Dip treatments more effectively extended the storage life of tomato than apple and at ambient (32+or-2 degrees C) than at low temperature (7+or-2 degrees C). Dip treatments also decreased the cumulative physiological loss in weight and spoilage of tomato and apple,



Journal of Applied Horticulture