Abstract:
Banana (Musa acuminata cv. Lemak Manis) in Terengganu is facing great losses due to
post harvest disease infection. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of
citral essential oil on control of banana post harvest disease and to determine the optimum
concentration and time length exposure of citral. Bananas were treated with citral
essential oil emulsions vapor at concentration 0.004% to 2.5%, stored at ambient
temperature (26±2°C) in closed chambers. Effects of citral essential oils on post harvest
diseases; pathological properties and physicochemical properties were determined and
compared with bananas in control and bananas treated with benomyl. Bananas treated
with citral vapor in the concentration range of 0.004% to 2.5% for one hour exposure had
significantly reduced the fungal infection on bananas compared to untreated bananas and
were as effective as fungicide benomyl. Citral treatments had also significantly reduced
banana peel spot. At the same time, citral vapor treatment did not affect physicochemical
properties such as hue angle, chroma, weight loss, pH and texture firmness of banana. In
this study, bananas treated with 0.004% citral for twelve hours showed the most desirable
treatment after comparing with other treatments. This study suggests the potential use of
citral to replace benomyl as alternative control on of post harvest banana diseases.
